Saturday, January 1, 2011

2010.12.29 - Stable & Unchanged

We had another MRI scan today and it appears that there was no change from the last one two months ago. That is good, but still not what I hoped to see on the scan images, which is regression. I had "hard" chemo (CPT11, Navelbine & Avastin). I wasn't feeling good after the CPT11. We might stop using Avastin for a while, but we won't make that decision just yet. My physician recently attended a conference on the use of Avastin and some physicians are questioning whether it is appropriate for continuous use.

When there is diffuse tumor progression, like we saw two months ago, the tumor cells are piggybacking the blood supply of healthy cells. The hypothesis is that perhaps if the patient stopped receiving Avastin for a while, the tumor cells would develop their own blood supply and once that took place, chemo might be more effective against the tumor. It is a concept that hasn't been tested.

I hope you had a Merry Christmas! I did.