Hi Everyone:
This question is not about my Mom - - rather, a dear friend of the family presently is battling metastatic ovarian cancer and she was diagnosed 2 days ago with having a bowel obstruction (apparently from scar tissue following "cytoreductive surgery with hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy" which she underwent in Feb. 2012). She was admitted to the hospital and cannot eat or drink (plus, she has nausea). In searching here on GRACE, this is what Dr. Harman had to say about bowel obstructions: "Intestinal obstruction is a very serious complication of cancer which can occur due to prior cancer surgeries (scar tissue can cause the intestines to twist and obstruct) or due to the cancer itself causing a blockage. This can warrant surgery at times if the obstruction cannot reverse itself on its own."
Our friend's docs are waiting to see if the obstruction will resolve itself in the next few days. We've been told that surgery to fix this is off the table for now because she recently was infused with maintenance Avastin (among other things).
My question is, how long after an an Avastin infusion is it generally considered safe to undergo surgery?
Laya
Reply # - July 8, 2012, 11:08 AM
Reply To: Avastin and Surgery for Bowel Obstruction
Six weeks is usually a preferred interval if it isn't an emergency. If it is, then it just has to be accepted that the risk of bleeding complications is significantly greater, but it may be felt that there is no viable alternative.
-Dr. West