Conversation: The conversation between human and AI assistant.
[|Human|] Hi, may I answer your health queries right now ?  Please type your query here...My husband had bowel cancer surgery in 2009 and has just had a CT Scan and has been told the cancer has returned to the pelvic area and lymph nodes and cannot have further surgery. Does this mean he is terminally ill?
[|AI|]  Hi, Thanks for writing in. Bowel cancer is difficult to treat in some patients and your husband might have had a recurrence lymph node involvement. In this situation there is disease spread to the regional lymph nodes and this make it difficult to operate. However, treatment should be started after COSI Chat Doctor. Many patients can have good response to chemotherapy and radiation therapy and show significant reduction in size of lymph nodes. This can then be assessed again and a staging can be done and if possible then operated at a later date. Bowel cancer is also seen to spread to liver in nearly half the patients, and therefore it will help to check on the liver from time to time by ultrasound scan or CT scan. Lungs should also be screened regularly. Hope he recovers with treatment. Please do not worry.