Wednesday, April 30, 2014

My conundrum

Let me start by thanking Diana for coming with me to my consult with Dr. Brahmer. 

When I was first diagnosed in March of 2008 we had met with Dr. Brahmer to enlist her as my primary oncologist. Back then she offered to put me in a trial. Being a "newbie" to this whole cancer thing, I elected to go somewhere else and get the conventional lung cancer treatment. What's so weird now is that I am back to see what trials are currently available for me to participate in.

Just to be clear, what I am looking for is plan B, plan C etc. The consensus is that as long as the Alimta and Avastin combo is working no changes should or would be made. We won't know if the current regimine is working until I get scanned in about another month.

Here is where it gets weird. I have to have the liver biopsy to gain admission into this possible trial. I also need the biopsy so that the genetic lab I am working with can do a targeted exome gene sequence and test me for ROS1, PD1 and PDL1. This is really technical and advanced stuff and way beyond my pay grade :-) So, the biopsy needs to find some tumor cells to test. 

The flip side is that maybe the liver tumor has already shrunk and there is nothing to extract or test. And here in is my conundrum. Do I want the tumor to grow and therefore get a good sample to test or do I want the Alimta and Avastin to get back to work and shrink the tumors. Hmmm!

How insane is all of this?

Carpe Diem.

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