The cancer that killed my husband is called cholangiocarcinoma.  It starts in the liver and bile ducts.  However, it's extremely aggressive and spreads quickly.  By the time it's found, the victim basically has "cancer of the everything."  At this point, there is no chemo or radiation or surgery that's been shown to stop it, or even slow it down.  The diagnosis is a guaranteed death sentence. In my husband's case, he was dead a mere six and a half weeks after they began finding the cancers.

Ten years before my husband's death, he was diagnosed with the precursor disease.  It is called primary sclerosing cholangitis.  At the time, little was known about the disease.  The hepatologists (liver specialists; my late husband went for check-ups every six months) that cared for my late husband told us that if he followed a very healthy life-style, his liver might eventually fail and then he'd need a transplant in about 15-20 years. They were wrong.

By the time my late husband's cancer showed up, the medical literature was saying that the average time from diagnosis to death, from this unholy condition, was 10 years.  It was nearly exactly ten years when he died.

People you may have heard of with cholangiocarcinoma include Walter "Sweetness" Payton of the Chicago Bears Football time.  His widow set up a foundations to help others.  Here is the website:

http://www.payton34.com/


I'm the kind of person who needs to know the "why."  Once I understand, I can begin to "accept and move on."  If I can see no reasonable explanation, I can get "stuck" on a situation.  My mind replays and reanalyzes the problem over and over until it finds and answer.  To that end, I researched the disease.  It was an effective coping strategy for me.  If you are interested, there are some liver links below.

Here are some other links about the liver:
www.liverfoundation.org

nlfindia.com

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/liverdiseases.htmlhttp://www.mayoclinic.com/health/liver-cancer/DS00399