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Ask HN: Partial Aorta Artery Repair

19 points by thangalin 11y ago

HNers are some of the brightest sparks around. I am hoping that one of you might be informed enough to shed some light on this issue. My daughter's mother has a tumour that is growing, slowly, in and around her aorta. She has been to doctors. Surgery for a tissue sample won't happen from fear of life-threatening damage to the aorta. As such, they cannot determine the type of tumour. Consequently, chemo and other forms of therapy (including surgical) are off the list. From "New Materials and Technologies for Healthcare" (2012), I've read that, "The repair of the aortic artery using stem cells to regenerate the diseased section would be an important step but is far from being a clinical procedure." What other researchers or medical facilities are seeking effective treatment of (potentially cancerous) aorta artery tumours? What other treatment options are available?

sjg007 11y ago
Ask the doctors if the Guardant 360 test could help. https://www.guardanthealth.com/guardant360/ https://www.guardanthealth.com/guardant360/ It is a blood test that can determine genetic mutations in the tumor that may help identify it.
- thangalin 11y ago
  That's a great idea, I shall pass it along. Thank you.
mchannon 11y ago
Given the severity (significant), and speed (relatively slow), I'd get a second opinion from a (different?) top-tier medical facility. Sometimes doctors just don't know what they need to know in order to best treat a condition, and they're not good at polling the competition (though many try). It's up to the motivated patient to fill that gap, though it's probably a long shot. The aorta moves, constantly, making any kind of characterization or manipulation nearly impossible without stopping it, running the risk that it may not start up again. No doctor in their right mind would risk killing their patient for test results that aren't urgently needed. The patient staying alive is the goal. Some tumors stop growing all on their own, and there may be decades of functionality left in spite of the growth. When the heart ends up limping along from occluded flow, running a bypass would seem like a commonly-performed procedure. That may not be applicable but the death rate for a coronary bypass for a patient under 65 (presumably like your baby mama) is under 1 percent. Maybe things aren't as dire as they seem.
davak 11y ago
MD here. Something is odd. If it's big enough to be tumor-like it's big enough to be biopsied. If it's small, they can just watch it on serial CT scans. If it's growing, they can put her on bypass and replace that section of her aorta. Not as easy as it sounds, but still usually possible. Repair with stem cells is very different than curing a tumor. In complex, atypical cases the answer is always to go to a large teaching institution.
- thangalin 11y ago
  Thank you so much! Any institutions you would recommend?

19 points by thangalin 11y ago

sjg007 11y ago

Ask the doctors if the Guardant 360 test could help. https://www.guardanthealth.com/guardant360/ https://www.guardanthealth.com/guardant360/ It is a blood test that can determine genetic mutations in the tumor that may help identify it.

thangalin 11y ago
That's a great idea, I shall pass it along. Thank you.

mchannon 11y ago

Given the severity (significant), and speed (relatively slow), I'd get a second opinion from a (different?) top-tier medical facility. Sometimes doctors just don't know what they need to know in order to best treat a condition, and they're not good at polling the competition (though many try). It's up to the motivated patient to fill that gap, though it's probably a long shot. The aorta moves, constantly, making any kind of characterization or manipulation nearly impossible without stopping it, running the risk that it may not start up again. No doctor in their right mind would risk killing their patient for test results that aren't urgently needed. The patient staying alive is the goal. Some tumors stop growing all on their own, and there may be decades of functionality left in spite of the growth. When the heart ends up limping along from occluded flow, running a bypass would seem like a commonly-performed procedure. That may not be applicable but the death rate for a coronary bypass for a patient under 65 (presumably like your baby mama) is under 1 percent. Maybe things aren't as dire as they seem.

davak 11y ago

MD here. Something is odd. If it's big enough to be tumor-like it's big enough to be biopsied. If it's small, they can just watch it on serial CT scans. If it's growing, they can put her on bypass and replace that section of her aorta. Not as easy as it sounds, but still usually possible. Repair with stem cells is very different than curing a tumor. In complex, atypical cases the answer is always to go to a large teaching institution.

thangalin 11y ago
Thank you so much! Any institutions you would recommend?