Time for a Change

Due to my tumor markers being up this month, a PETscan was done on Wednesday morning, and my oncologist called Thursday afternoon with the results.   What she told me on the phone was that things looked a little worse near the liver which indicated that the medicine was not working.  She asked if I could come in on Friday morning at 8 AM to discuss some options and review further the scan.

Mom came with me to the appointment on Friday. When we reviewed the scan with the oncologist, we were able to see that things had progressed some with the lymph nodes near the liver glowing brighter and a little bigger. While it wasn't possible to tell exactly how many nodes were involved, it was still a small number. Also, it has not spread beyond that basic area of nodes that it has already been in.  There also was a spot glowing brighter in the liver which has come & gone some over the last year, but the good thing is that there was not a defined mass.  Basically, for having some progression, this was about the best case scenario possible.  My oncologist does believe that even with a small amount of progression, it is best to go ahead and change medication to avoid it becoming more which I really appreciate.

A couple of visits ago, I had asked what the next step was likely to be, and the physician's assistant said it would probably be a more traditional chemo in pill form.  Thankfully, since it is such a small progression, we are able to avoid that and stay with an endocrine therapy that attacks the hormones.  We will definitely be using a pill form of that know as exemestane or Aromasin.  My oncologist wants us to pair a second medicine with it that will help keep cells from dividing.  The options are either everolimus/Afinitor or going on a clinical trial with the drug entinostat. She was waiting for more information on the trial as to whether they were still adding people and/or whether there was a placebo arm to the trial.  She only wants that as an option if I would definitely be getting the 2nd drug; if there is any chance I would get a placebo, that option is off the table.

My oncologist told me to think about the options and that she would call me later in the day after she heard back from the trial.  Oddly, I didn't hear from her last night; so, I have to assume she didn't hear back from the trial yet.  My oncologist has called even at 6:45 on a Friday night before to make sure that I had information.  There are a lot of things to think about in regards to which option to take, but I'm so thankful that there are options like this.  Every drug has side effects of course (even a benadryl), but these options should have little impact on my life and being able to work, travel, etc. The big goal is still to get back to No Evidence of Disease or if not that, to stay as stable as possible with regression preferable.

I would really appreciate your good thoughts and prayers to make the best decision for me on the options for medicine and that whatever is chosen will work as well as possible.  Thanks so much!