Not quite the same but I had bowel cancer that had already spread to the liver when discovered, with a suspicious small lesion on lung.
I am still here 14 years later, with 7 years since the last "cancer incident". Just on annual check up scans now and those may stop next year of all still clear.
In my case the doctors wanted to stabilise the disease so I had chemo first, then a bowel operation, more chemo, then a liver resection, a third lot of chemo and then several radio frequency ablations on small suspicious spots on my liver ( and on the lung - though the jury is out as to whether that was cancerous - the approach was to zap it with the laser just in case) and then another liver resection because one pesky lesion kept reappearing.
That all sounds like very hard work - but the doctors were very good at taking one step at a time to stop things from becoming overwhelming.
Certainly when I was diagnosed all the literature and the internet was very gloomy about survival with secondaries. But I've learned that everyone is treated as an individual now, what works for one doesn't work for another and vice versa so nobody can really say what will happen next, but it may well be chemo pre surgery for your friend.
Wishing her the best of luck