It's been an interesting 24 hours being bombarded by return telephone calls and emails. Here's the scoop so far.

1. Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (UW and Fred Hutch) offers the Cyberknife (high dose, specific radiation). I spoke with the facilitator of the Liver Tumor Center at UW today. I sent all of Jon's records and scans to her and she will present them to a board of cancer specialist ranging from oncologist to radiologists to surgeons on Tuesday. After the review the data they will let us know if Jon is a candidate for a liver resection with the Cyberknife.

2. I posted notices on a Cyberknife website and had a response from a surgeon that thought a better procedure would be Selective Internal Radiaton Therapy. This is similar to that radioactive seeds but cover a larger area. The radioactive spheres contain beta radiation and are implanted through a catheter into the liver. Once implanted they are selective to destroying cancer cells while preserving healthy tissue. This should overcome the obstacle of the close proximity of the largest tumor and the inferior vena cava. This procedure is offered at only 8 centers in the US, our two favorite picks are University of Pittsburgh and MD Anderson in Houston.

3. Jon's brother, Steve, sent us a link last night to John Kanzius who has pioneered another procedure known as Kanzius Radiofrequency Therapy. This procedure is similar to the Radiofrequency ablation, but implanted in a similar manner as the Internal Radiation Therapy. In tests on animals this procedure was 100% effective, however it is not yet approved for humans. The studies are being performed two of the same places as the SIRT, University of Pittsburgh and MD Anderson. I have emails to both of them to request a review of Jon's case for either procedure.

4. Stanford offers the Cyberknife and tomorrow I have a telephone appointment with the surgeon. We would like to stay local if possible since UW also offers the cyberknife but will travel to whichever facility offers the best options.

Jon seemed better today then he has in weeks. He came to the office for a massage (with sesame oil to up his platelets!) and the therapist let him nap for an hour afterward. Tomorrow he goes for his first Intravenous Vitamin C and acupuncture. Looks like he will have one chemo, two acupuncture, and one Vit C Infusion per week for the next 8 weeks. By the end of that time we should have a good idea of what other options are available to us.