Chemo Update

I had my latest round of scans last week and went over the results with my oncologist yesterday. Her conclusion is that this chemo is no longer working and it's time to consider a new combination of chemo drugs - the ninth chemo regimen this year.

Here are my test results:

Echocardiogram: Within normal range, with little change from the last one in June - ejection fraction of 57% vs. 56% before.

Chest X-Ray: The radiologist says this latest look at the lungs "shows no significant change" from the previous one in June. He also says there is no cancer spread and the cloudy white stuff could be due to an infection. This just goes to show how tricky it is to find cancer in the lungs from just an X-ray. This radiologist didn't know that I'd already had a lung biopsy in February and we knew for sure it was cancer and not an infection that was showing up on the X-rays. My oncologist thinks my lungs show a bit of improvement.

Liver ultrasound: The report says that compared to the previous ultrasound in June, there is "an increase in both size and number of lesions". There are at least 8 lesions, or tumors, in the liver compared to 7 last time and they're bigger than before. My oncologist says these donut-like tumors are "peculiar". She thinks the slightly darker centers are due to necrosis (dead cancer cells), but she wonders why these dead cells are not being flushed out by the liver. She suggested a CT scan might show us more.

Tumor markers: They've all gone up since the last blood test on June 30.
CA-125 up to 229.0 from 125.5 (normal range is <35.0).
CEA to 7.8 from 4.6 (normal is <4.7).
CA15-3 to 45.0 from 25.9 (normal is <25.0).

My doctor's initial suggestion is to stop the Xeloda + Tykerb + Herceptin chemo combo I'm on now and switch to Avastin + Abraxane. She says she'll present my case to the "tumor board", a panel of 12 oncologists, to see what they think. For now, she has stopped my current chemo combo to give my hands and feet some time to recover from the Hand-Foot Syndrome before I start on my next chemo regimen, whatever that may be. Stay tuned...