March 17, 2008

As usual, this progress report has some good news and some not-so-good news.

Last Friday I had another CT Scan and a full body bone scan to see if the cancer has spread into any bones.

The CT Scan showed that the 4cm density that was recently discovered in my right lung has decreased to 3cm. I can no longer feel pain in my right lung that I had a couple weeks ago. Additionally, my lung capacity has improved from 2200ml four weeks ago, to 2800ml now. It should be at 3400ml, but I am happy that it is heading in the right direction.

The recent Bone Scan shows no definitive metastasis in any of my bones, although they identified an area of 'suspicion'... It is suspiciously close to the spot where they did the recent needle biopsy of my lung, so maybe they saw some small scars from the biopsy, so I'm not too worried about that one.

On the other hand, the CT scan indicates some minor growth of the several lymph nodes and an increased number of "nodules" that could become tumors. It is vague, however, it indicates an instability, and that is a clue to Dr. Needles that the Chemo treatment is no longer working. So it is time to move to another treatment. This morning we stopped the Chemo and I started on a fairly new drug called "Torisel'. It has a number of side effects, but it is not as toxic, expensive, or restrictive as the Chemo treatments I have been on since last August. We really had high hopes that the Chemo would have a positive result (reducing the cancer), but all it did was stabilize the disease for awhile (and make me sick.) We have the same high hopes for Torisel. if it doesn't work, we will again be looking at Interferon or Interlueken treatments options.

Even if we just stabilize for a while, we can see there are new Renal Cell Carcinoma treatments on the horizon, so we have not run out of options yet. I'm convinced that the cure is out there.... we just haven't tried it yet!

In the mean time, thank you for your prayers, thoughts, and support.

D. J.