Half of colorectal cancer cancers have already spread to the liver by the time of diagnosis. Many doctors tell patients that they are out of surgical options at that point and recommend chemotherapy.

However, doctors at Ohio State's James Cancer hospital disagree that surgery is never an option at that point. Doctors there, including Tanios Saab, say that if chemo or radiation can shrink the tumor, surgeons may be able to go surgically and get the rest out.

The liver is the only solid organ that can grow back once it is cut. Surgeons have found that they can remove as much as 80% of the liver and within a year, the liver will grow back.

White House press secretary Tony Snow says his resignation has nothing to do with cancer and everything to do with money. According to sources from the Bush administration, he will step down from his position. Snow, however, is not making an announcement at this time.

"I'm not going to be able to go the distance, but that's primarily for financial reasons." Snow said. "I've told people when my money runs out, then I've got to go."

"Blessings arrive in unexpected packages -- in my case, cancer," writes White House Press Secretary Tony Snow in the July issue of Christianity Today.

Snow, who discovered in March that his colon cancer had recurred and spread to his liver, said his life-threatening setback is also life-affirming. It has strengthened his faith and brought clarity to his life.

"We don't know how the narrative of our lives will end, but we get to choose how to use the interval between now and the moment we meet our Creator," says the 51-year-old.

You might think, like many people do, that smokeless tobacco products are safe alternatives to cigarettes. Wrong.

According to researchers at the University of Minnesota Cancer Center, smokeless tobacco users are exposed to higher amounts of carcinogenic molecules than cigarette smokers. In a study of 182 users of chewing tobacco or oral snuff and 420 cigarette smokers, they found snuff users were exposed to higher levels of 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK) than smokers. NNK is a human carcinogen known to produce lung cancer. In laboratory animals, it also contributes to cancers of the pancreas, nasal mucosa, and liver.

Published in the August issue of Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, this study serves to remind us that there is only one safe alternative to smoking -- not smoking.

There are several treatment options for liver metastasis, one being surgery. Results published in the Archives of Surgery state that repeat surgery to remove cancer that has spread to the liver provides significantly improved survival among patients with colorectal cancer.

The surgery, called hepatectomy, is the surgical removal of cancer and the surrounding tissue. Researchers recently evaluated data including treatment with repeat hepatectomies among patients with colorectal cancer and liver metastasis. The study included 64 patients who underwent one or more hepatectomies followed by chemotherapy.

At five years the overall survival was 53 percent. Among patients who experienced a cancer recurrence, five-year overall survival measured from the first hepatectomy was 73 percent among patients who underwent repeated hepatectomy, compared with 43 percent among patients without repeated surgery.

Liver cancer experts attribute the rise in HCC, a highly aggressive cancer sometimes called hepatoma, to an increase decades ago in chronic infection with hepititis C & B and also chronic alcohol consumption. Worldwide liver cancer affects 700,000 people with 18,000 Americans diagnosed in 2006 and over 19,000 estimated to be diagnosed in 2007. The increase of this disease in the United States has doubled in one decade and over 16,000 people are estimated to die from the disease this year.

The rise in the United States is expected to increase. There are now 1.4 million people in the United States infected with HBV and 4 million are infected with HCV. Growing evidence suggests two other diseases now increasingly common in the United States to have significant risk factors for primary liver cancer. Diabetes and obesity.

HCC typically does not have any symptoms until its later stages which makes it difficult to diagnose. Traditional chemo does not treat the disease with much success and liver transplants or resection surgeries are needed. One reason why donors are very important in fighting this disease. When signs and symptoms do arise they might include weight loss, fatigue, pain in the upper right abdomen that may extend to the back and shoulder, feeling full after small meals, accumulation of fluid in the abdomen, nausea, loss of appetite, and jaundice.

Can coffee reduce the risk of liver cancer? According to findings published in the medical journal Gastroenterology it can. "Data on potential beneficial effects of coffee on liver function and liver diseases have accrued over the last two decades," states Drs. Susanna C. Larsson and Alicja Wolk, from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm.

11 studies involving 2,260 liver cancer patients and 239,146 individuals without liver cancer showed that for every 2 cups of coffee per day, the investigators observed a 43 percent reduced risk of liver cancer. Coffee contains large amounts of antioxidants, such as chlorogenic acids that have an inhibitory effect on liver cancer.

A late-breaking session at the 2007 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) says that "Patients with colorectal cancer whose cancer has spread to the liver have improved survival without cancer recurrences when they receive chemotherapy prior to and following surgery, compared to those treated with surgery only."

Adjuvant chemotherapy is when chemo is used after surgery. Neoadjuvant treatment is when chemotherapy is given to shrink the tumor to allow for better surgical removal.

The second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States is colorectal cancer. Liver metastasis is common among patients with advanced disease. A clinical trial was conducted to evaluate the use of chemotherapy before and after surgery compared to surgery alone. The trial included 364 patients who were divided into two treatment groups.

At nearly four years' followup, recurrence-free survival was 42.4 percent for patients receiving chemotherapy before and after surgery, compared with only 33.2 percent for those treated with surgery only.

Interferon is an immune stimulating agent. According to an article recently published in the Annals of Surgery, administration of interferon following surgery may improve survival among patients with advanced hepatitis B-related hepatocelluar carcinoma.

Hepatocelluar carcinoma (HCC) is the most common type of liver cancer. Unfortunately for this disease, recurrences often happen after surgical removal of the cancer. Researchers continue to evaluate ways to reduce these recurrences.

A clinical trial was conducted to evaluate the use of interferon following surgery in patients with HCC. The trial included 80 patients, one group received the interferon after surgery and the other group received no further treatment. The researchers found that the group treated with interferon experienced better survival rates.

If living with Hepatitis C isn't trying enough, studies are showing that people living with the chronic condition are at a greater risk for developing Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, based on research done on US soldiers living with Hep C. Hep C is a disease characterized by an inflamed liver, and it has also been linked to Liver Cancer. There's no vaccine, and it's spread by an exchange of bodily fluids.

The immune system of people living with chronic Hep C is constantly taxed, and it's believed this is the reason behind the link between these two diseases. Hep C, as the article points out, affects more than four million people in the United States, and afflicts men more than women.

Nicole Labrecque was only three years old when she lost her battle with hepatoblastoma, a rare liver cancer. That was 16 years ago and for the last six years, Nicole's father Richard has been raising money to help seriously-ill children like his daughter have their special wish come true.

Richard said his daughter died suddenly three days after the family's Make-A-Wish trip to Disney World. Richard Labrecque told reporters, "She spent a beautiful week having fun and for a few days, she was able to forget about the pain of surgeries and chemotherapy. It is priceless to see these kids have fun. Nicole was three years old and we were swept off our feet. I'm dedicated to this organization."

In the past five years, Nicole's walk has raised over $70,000, which has gone to the Vermont Make-A-Wish Foundation. The annual walk, which will be held this year on May 20, 2007 on the Toonerville Trail in Springfield, VT starts at 9:30 a.m. The trail is 6.2 miles.

All participants get a purple T-shirt -- purple was Nicole's favorite color.

More on coffee -- a topic of panel discussion at the recent Experimental Biology 2007 meeting in Washington, DC, and subject of nearly 400 studies investigating consumption and cancer risk.

Think about this:

No one claims coffee is the new health food. And non-coffee drinkers are not encouraged to drink the beverage for their health. Yet the beverage is certainly losing some of its negative health image.

But is it enough?

Some say coffee protects against colon, rectal, and liver cancers (diabetes too). These same people recognize it also can increase the risk of leukemia and stomach cancer. Those at risk, like pregnant women and children, should limit their consumption.

Like many connections between cancer and diet, there just isn't enough research to tell a whole story. We can only take what's available and make our own educated decisions about our own individual lives.

What decision will you make about coffee?

Cleopatra was her name, she died yesterday. She was eleven and half years old. What a sweet girl she was and I am going to miss her so much. She died of a liver tumor that was diagnosed yesterday. I took her to the emergency animal hospital after I noticed that she looked very lethargic.

Cleo was part of my life for such a long time. One thing that sticks in my mind about her was that after I was diagnosed with breast cancer she would always come over to me when I was crying -- like she knew I was upset and she always made me feel better.

Goodbye Cleo -- mommy loves you.

My friend's husband lost his mother to liver cancer during the wee hours of Sunday morning. He had traveled with his family from Ohio to Florida expecting to take his mom home with him so she could spend her last months where she once lived.

Steve never got to take his mom home. She died just days after he landed in Florida. Still, I am confident he won't return to Ohio empty-handed. His positive and healthy perspective on losing his mom will surely keep him company.

I got to see Steve and Kim -- my very best friend whose bouncy ringlets I envied long before I got my own post-chemotherapy curls -- on the same day Steve's mom died. They needed to get away and wanted a distraction for their two small children.

I am honored to have been chosen as my friends' destination -- not only so they could begin to heal from their loss, but because I gained a renewed sense of calm about death and dying during the time we talked and laughed and reminisced.

Steve's mom, 69, died at home in the loving arms of hospice caretakers who offered her round-the-clock care. During her final hours, she received a bath, a back rub, and a massage with body lotion. She sent non-verbal messages to her family members indicating she wished to be alone and once she had convinced everyone to head for bed, she took her final breaths. She died facing a wall, in contrast to her usual position in which she faced the door, as if to welcome all visitors. Her final resting pose was perhaps her way of saying good-bye. Steve sees it this way.

Just moments after Steve's mom was driven away in a funeral home car, Steve saw the clouds part. And then the rain fell. "Mom just figured out how to turn on the water," Steve said.

I don't think I'll ever forget this remark. Or the fact that the rain didn't last for very long on Sunday. The day Steve's mom died was gorgeous, glorious, and sunny.

There's so much more we talked about -- like the convertible Steve's mom drove and how he thought about placing her urn, her photo, and a scarf in the seat and taking his mom for one last spin before turning the car in -- and we passed the day in a celebratory manner. This, I think, is exactly what Steve's mom would have wanted.

White House Press Secretary Tony Snow popped in for an unexpected visit on Bill O'Reilly's Radio Factor on Wednesday with the purpose of clearing up a certain cancer matter.

"Some of this has been misreported," Snow told O'Reilly in reference to his recent cancer recurrence.

"I do not have liver cancer," Snow said. "There are a number of small tumors that are in my abdominal cavity; they have not hit any other organs."

Snow, 51, said there is also no cancer traveling through his bloodstream and that he plans to return to work after recovering from the surgery he had two weeks ago to remove tumors from his abdomen.

Although his cancer is not threatening his life -- he says if the tumors didn't grow from now until the time he died, he would be absolutely fine -- Snow will still receive chemotherapy to "drive this sucker into remission," he said.

Snow began battling cancer in 2005 when he was diagnosed with colon cancer, had his colon removed, and underwent several months of chemotherapy.