Good News/Bad News
So, time has gone by and Tori and I have been trying to keep a handle on things while this therapy ran its course. I have most of my strength back and I've gained back about 13 pounds of the original 20. I got a follow up PET scan this last week to survey how things went with my IL-2 treatment. The good news is that the two smallest tumors(about 1cm) both have disappeared. Yay! But the two larger ones (1.5cm) have grown to 2.5 and 3 cm, respectively and there is a new 1.5 cm tumor in my abdominal cavity. In addition there are several smaller (<3mm) tumors in my small bowel. So not great.
Now I go on Zelboraf, a new cancer drug that was approved last year by the FDA. This drug targets a specific mutation found in many cancer cells (including mine). The response rate has been very good, somewhere around 60% in some studies. It has had good effect at shrinking and keeping cancer cells from replicating, however it has not been good at killing them altogether. So it makes the tumors small and manageable but doesn't take them away. It's a pill form and doesn't require a hospital stay, so good on that. I will have some side effects such as sensitivity to sunlight, joint pain and some other skin problems but nothing that I can't manage and still go to work and hopefully live a somewhat normal life until this drug gets beat by the cancer.
As I see it from reading the medical literature and talking with the docs it is now a play for time. There is a small possibility that this drug (or this drug in combination with more IL-2 if the tumors get small enough) could cure me. However, the odds are long. Now I hope that the drug keeps me alive long enough for other cancer drugs to come out of the FDA pipeline and be a benefit to me in my case. This drug could work for 6 months, a year, longer, or not at all. But it is all about making the days count right now. I'm not done by any stretch but let's just say the door has creaked an inch closer.
Tori is holding up as well as Tori can hold up. She is being strong for me. She is so fucking strong, the strongest woman I've ever known. And I've known some very strong women (or maybe just stubborn, but I digress). I am strong because of her and will be strong for her. Her and the girls. I still don't believe it's real, sort of. I suppose if the 3 cm tumor (in my pancreas) keeps growing it will be real enough when I get hospitalized for pancreatitis. Oh well, fuck you cancer. Kiss my ass right in the crack, you don't have me yet.
Now I go on Zelboraf, a new cancer drug that was approved last year by the FDA. This drug targets a specific mutation found in many cancer cells (including mine). The response rate has been very good, somewhere around 60% in some studies. It has had good effect at shrinking and keeping cancer cells from replicating, however it has not been good at killing them altogether. So it makes the tumors small and manageable but doesn't take them away. It's a pill form and doesn't require a hospital stay, so good on that. I will have some side effects such as sensitivity to sunlight, joint pain and some other skin problems but nothing that I can't manage and still go to work and hopefully live a somewhat normal life until this drug gets beat by the cancer.
As I see it from reading the medical literature and talking with the docs it is now a play for time. There is a small possibility that this drug (or this drug in combination with more IL-2 if the tumors get small enough) could cure me. However, the odds are long. Now I hope that the drug keeps me alive long enough for other cancer drugs to come out of the FDA pipeline and be a benefit to me in my case. This drug could work for 6 months, a year, longer, or not at all. But it is all about making the days count right now. I'm not done by any stretch but let's just say the door has creaked an inch closer.
Tori is holding up as well as Tori can hold up. She is being strong for me. She is so fucking strong, the strongest woman I've ever known. And I've known some very strong women (or maybe just stubborn, but I digress). I am strong because of her and will be strong for her. Her and the girls. I still don't believe it's real, sort of. I suppose if the 3 cm tumor (in my pancreas) keeps growing it will be real enough when I get hospitalized for pancreatitis. Oh well, fuck you cancer. Kiss my ass right in the crack, you don't have me yet.