Game changer

Jen mentioned it already - this weekend was a game-changer. We were exposed to a wide range of the latest and greatest treatment options. Even though we were the youngest patient there by about 20 years, it was very worthwhile to hear the stories of people who were given months to live and proved their doctors wrong. Even still, we bailed on the nightly dinners with the conference to go out on our own. I learned that there is such a thing as a bone-in filet mignon, and that it's basically red meat candy. It was the best steak I've ever had in my life!!!

Anyhow, on to the details of the conference. It kicked off with a presentation from a surgical oncologist who described all the different criteria for determining surgical applicability and liver surgery techniques. We learned that surgery is an option for certain patients, even if they have metastatic disease! That's a far cry from the absolute denial we got from our oncologist. We then got a good presentation from a radiation oncologist who described the latest and greatest radiation therapies, including cyberknife and proton beam therapy. Apparently, both these methods, even though they are great at targeting radiation to specific areas, have trouble with the liver. This is due to the fact that the liver is positioned directly under the diaphragm, so the radiation target keeps moving, and these therapies tend to miss the target.

The most promising radiation therapy is Yttrium-90 microspheres. There are two trade names for them: SIRSpheres and Theraspheres. Basically they are tiny (~30um dia) particles (glass for SIRSpheres and polymer for Theraspheres) that are impregnated with radioactive Yttrium-90. These particles are injected into the hepatic artery - the artery that feeds the liver - and they become lodged in the blood vessels supplying the tumors. They they release their radiation over time. In this manner, they can irradiate the tumors with a lethal dose while sparing healthy liver tissue. There were many papers presented that showed the impressive results that this treatment offers. This is a treatment that we're going to be investigating closely.

The overall theme that we're leaving this weekend with can be wrapped up in one word: multidisciplinary. We chose treatment at Hopkins thinking that this comprehensive cancer center would offer this multidisciplinary approach. We have been greatly disappointed in this regard. We are booking appointments down at MD Anderson in Houston, and we've insisted on meetings with Medical, Radiation, and Surgical oncologists. We are going to get a good multi-dis. exposure down there, and with the info we have from this conference we have a much sharper set of questions.

While we were exposed to way too many mortality graphs this weekend, one of the good things about it was that we saw a bunch of CT scans, and learned a little of what to look for in our own scans. Below are two scans of my liver - one from November and one from April. The liver is large oblong gray mass in the upper left area of the scan. Dark spots on the liver are the tumors. You can see from the before and after just how effective the chemo has been in reducing the number of tumors. The November scan is first.


























Hoo - ah!! That's kickin some cancer ass right there!!

I'm going to end this post with some words to anyone reading this that's going through the fight. Never, ever, ever, ever, give up. Here's a nice little sticker that can remind you of this.



God has promised healing and long life to all who believe. There is no diagnosis that He hasn't defeated, and He has told no doctors how long you have to live.

Statistics are a great tool for looking at populations as a whole, but they don't define your life. Outliers exist in all of the mortality curves, so fight like a MoFo to make yourself one of the outliers. Lean on the Lord to get you through the rough times and the easy, and He will lead you through it.