3/10/2007

The Results Are In!

Max's MRI and MIBG (bone) scan went well this week. Dr. Roberts call with the results and this is what we know:
  • MRI – shows decreased enhancement all along spine. It still shows signs of enhancement on two biggest points on spine (first two spots to show up originally) and some enhancement here and there.
  • MIBG – only shows uptake on one spot along the spine that correlates with MRI reading.
  • How do these two correlate? GCSF can cause the MRI to look like there is activity similar to what is being seen (activity here and there caused by the GCSF in the bone marrow creating white blood cell development). Also, the one spot on the MIBG could be the only “live” cancer cells with the MRI showing the live and dead tissue along with the GCSF reaction.
  • The consensus is that the disease is going away at this point.
  • Treatment should stay the way it is as it appears to be working. Continue on current chemo. Adding bisphosphonates, calcium, Vit D and possibly Vit C infusions. All to start 3/19.

This is pretty much what I was expecting and we hope that the current cocktail of drugs continues to work on these cancer cells. The fight is long from over.

Our newest issue is Max eating - or not eating I should say. Had a long discussion with his oncologist about this, too. Here's the scoop:

  • Max is down to 16.3 kilos (35.86lbs) from 17.2 (37.84). If we can’t find a way to get Max to eat and he loses one more kilo Dr. Roberts suggests that we put him on IV nutrition for 2-3 weeks everyday. This will require daily clinic visits for up to 12 hours each day. This, however, is not a long term solution.
  • We’re still working on the Megace: increased dosage from 4.5ml/day to 6.0ml/day with no results thus far.
  • This week Max started antacids to counteract the possibility that the nifurtimox is contributing to his appetite problems. We pondered the possibility of taking Max off the nifurtimox for a week to see what would happen, however Dr. Roberts does not want us to do that, but wait to see if the antacid does work over the next 2 weeks.
  • If results are still piss-poor we’ll move Max from Megace to a different appetite medicine to see if that works.

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