Results Day #2

In the past month Jen's pain has partially gone away and the nausea has subsided to a certain degree.  She has continued her steady positive path of recovery.  Hence I haven't been updating the blog all that much.  However, that changed this week, as she had had numerous scans performed on Tuesday August 28th.  We learned the results Thursday the 30th.

The Short:
The tumors have shrunk another 15%.  This means that the crizotinib treatment is still working, the tumors are continuing to recede, and there are no changes to the overall treatment plan.

The Long:
We spent most of the day at Froedtert for labs and meeting with Dr Santana.  Bringing the girls along brought good luck last time, and we hadn't lined up a baby sitter for today.  So once again, the girls came with us.

I waited out in the waiting area while Jen went in and consulted with the Oncology nurses and Dr Santana.  It felt like a lifetime, but soon nurse Kay came out and told us all to head in.  We did so, and the DR reviewed the scans with us.  At the base level they are all positive, the tumors are continuing to respond to the crizontinib.  The primary lung and right adrenal tumors have shrunk by another 15% or so.  This puts them at approximately 35% to 40% of their original size on June 1st.  Many of the smaller tumors in the liver and lymph nodes have shrunk to a size too small to accurately identify and measure. Obviously, this is great news. It means that we continue this treatment until either the cancer is gone completely or it's proven ineffective.

Next Dates:
CT scans: Monday October 22
Results day #3: Wednesday October 24th

OK... the logical folks like me who analyze things too much for our own good are asking the following question:
If the drug reduced the tumors by 45% in the first 4 weeks, why did they only shrink by 15 or 20% in the following 6?  What does that mean?

Well...we don't know.

I've read enough research papers in the last month to speculate on 3 or 4 reasons.  I won't give power to any of them by listing them here.  All it will do is depress anyone reading.  Lord knows it's depressed me.  I've stopped reading them.

It's said that information and knowledge is power.  But I'm finding that the more I read about this, the more hopeless it looks long term.  I can site trials, percentages, drug resistance hypotheses, clinical trials underway to overcome these resistances, on and on.  I can see where some detached researcher or scientist can look at this body of data and smile at the obvious progress man has made against this abomination.  But as a caregiver and a husband trying to arm myself with everything I can to make a difference, all I've done is proven to myself that the best minds in oncology don't have an answer.

We spent Saturday and Sunday at Mt. Olympus in the Dells.  Driving home Sunday night with everyone else asleep, and me left to my thoughts, it hit me.  The summer's over.  Where did it go?  Did I waste it away worrying constantly? What did I do with it? Where does the time go when you're not watching it?