We met with Dr. Chue at 1:00pm this afternoon and he was giddy with excitement. The CT scan revealed that Jon's tumors have shrunk to nearly half their original size!! At this point, the outcomes are better that Dr. Chue had even hoped. In addition, Jon's alkaline phosphotase is now a solid 83, also half its original value. Dr. Chue commented that he believes the tumors are probably even smaller than the CT revealed because they leave pockets of dead tissue in the liver that would not be differentiated from a tumor in a CT scan.
Jon has two weeks off and then back on a second set of intravenous chemo for twelve weeks. At the end of the twelve weeks he will have a PET scan and Dr. Chue expects him to be stabilized at that time. He would then use interferon (injections) to build up his immune system and Tarceva (oral chemo) to assure no additional tumor growth for a period of time (weeks??).
Interestingly enough the Seattle PI featured a front page article today on Aaron Barret and Dr. Chue. Aarron was the first pancreatic cancer survivor at Seattle Cancer Treatment and Wellness Center treating with the same protocol Jon is receiving. He is currently training for the Seattle to Portland Bike ride in July. I thought I might give him a call to see if we can join him :)
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http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/308476_pancreas22.html
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My mom and I went out to celebrate, and I actually had alcohol!!! After half of my Bailey's milkshake, my mom told me I was embarassing her with my loud cackling :-) Her: "Eat your food." Me: "HEE! HEE! EAT MY FOOD! HA! HA! EAT MY FOOD! HAAAAAAAAAA!"
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/308476_ pancreas22.html
the link got cut off
YEAAAAAHHHHH! What amazing and great news. It will be nice to have 2 weeks off to prepare for round 2 to shrink the tumors into nonexistence!
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