Update: January 8, 2011

Update: January 8, 2011

Many of you are aware that Will was getting a new set of scan results on Wednesday to see if the new medicine was working for him. Well it was good and not so good news I guess you could say.

The first doctor who came in told us that everything was stable and that only the spot in his lung had grown a tad, and that Will could stay on the current medicine because everything was stable. We were all happy, and as Will put it, ready to skip out of the office.

Well, then the second doctor came in. He let us know that the spot in Will’s lung is troubling to him. It appears that the cancer cells here have mutated or something to be a little more resistant to medicine. They are referring to this new spot as a clone. This is the same spot that got Will kicked off the trial at Duke for and the same spot that did not respond to the last chemo. Will and I have been asking why this spot is different for at least 7 months now. Now the spot is bigger.

The doctor’s recommendation was that Will do the chemo he originally took last fall for three cycles (three days of chemo, three weeks off – for three times). After those sessions then hopefully the spot will have shrunk enough to radiate or to do RFA on it. RFA is radiofrequency ablation. Essentially RFA is a procedure where they stick a needle in the tumor, send out radio waves, and microwave it from the inside out. Needless to say, Will is less than thrilled about having to undergo chemo again.

Will did speak with his radiation oncologist this week too. He told Will he can actually radiate the spot now, which we originally thought was out of the question. He said since the spot is so close to where Will had radiation previously and because it is in the lung, he could do it but that he would have to do lower doses over a longer period of time. Radiation is an option; however, radiation in the lungs can be tricky. Radiation kills the cells and can leave scar tissue. This scar tissue can cause problems later on down the road.

The doctors pretty much left the decision up to Will as to rather he would like to do chemo to shrink the spot or do radiation. Will has been considering all of the ups and downs of both. The idea of radiation is attractive to him because he would not have to go through chemo possibly. The possible long term side effects are not so attractive. Chemotherapy will not only hopefully shrink this clone spot, but also any microscopic spots that are not showing up or any of the areas that may not be dead tumors. Once the clone area is shrunken then radiation or RFA will be a better option to finish it off. We’ll probably opt to do the chemo first, then the radiation or RFA second

The doctors did say they think this is the only spot now that is a concern, and the other spots appear to be stable or dead. So it is good that if we can get this spot taken care of Will can go back on the Sutent he is on currently to maintain.

We are blessed that we received the news we did. Prayers are being answered. I am feeling very positive that if we can get this clone spot in his right lower lung then we will be in a very good spot. Thank you everyone for continued caring, praying, concerns, and love. This has been an interesting year and a half to say the least, and we could not have done it without all of your support.

~Katie