Karen's doing well. She's amazing actually, considering the few weeks we've had. Her mental fortitude would put Navy Seals to shame. More stress than I care to mention.
As the last post indicated, a PET scan showed cancerous activity in K's liver. We had a subsequent MRI. The MRI machine "broke" so that had to be rescheduled. Moriarty had some vacation which made scheduling difficult but we figured it out.
The MRI says there's a 2cm X 2cm sized tumor in Karen's liver above some veins. This is not good news considering this was an area already treated.
We do have some options, one of which we investigated today. Dr. Moriarty referred us to Dr. Schwartz, a radiation oncologist (someone who treats cancer with radiation). With tremendous luck we were able to get an appointment.
Schwartz walked us through the radiation option which amounts to a thing called the Cyberknife. Sterotactic Radiotherapy. What would happen is that 3 or 4 pieces of gold would be placed in Karen as markers. Then a special cushion of her body would be made. After the gold has settled (about 1 week) the surgeon would perform a very very fine CT scan of her abdomen. Then as Schwartz said, "the physicists take over" and they build a plan to shoot radiation into the tumor from every angle. Imagine an orange stabbed with a hundred knitting needless.
There's a 70-80% chance of the tumor being responsive to this and dying. That said there are better options; surgery first, RFA second, radiation being third in the list. If the radiation is done and cancer comes back in the same area, radiation cannot be used again and it would make future surgery more complex.
We will meet with Chamberlain (our surgeon) on the 23rd to explore surgery as an option. Rest assured, we will get to NED again.
Peace,
-fs
Showing posts with label cyberknife. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cyberknife. Show all posts
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Friday, May 23, 2008
Conference Debrief: CyberKnife
Karen's doing well. We met with Dr. Moriarty this morning and he debriefed us on the conference that took place this week (Tuesday) at Overlook. He was rather serious but understandably so.
From what we could discern this is a coming-together of various experts and leaders in various disciplines, radiology, oncology, surgery etc.. The agenda is to review key patients' cases both in terms of knowledge sharing (how the patient is doing) as well as idea generation (where to go next).
Not that Dr Dan doesn't know what to do next but rather he wants to solicit input and guidance from a wide audience to get the best possible outcome for Karen.
Dr Dan told us the group was VERY impressed with her. The group reviewed ALL her scans, all the way back to April 2007, not just the last set. Without treatment this time last year, she'd no longer be with us. Thanks to the treatment plan and her determination we are in a much better situation. Her tumors have shrunken, some have died. Microscopic disease is likely still around and we'll continue on chemo for that. The next step is to decide what ELSE we can do.
There are a couple of options;
The procedure is painless and done on an out-patient basis. It's also extremely accurate with radiation being targeted to the sub-millimeter. As if that wasn't enough the entire procedure is done by robots!
There are a number of videos on YouTube that describe how it works. This is truly next-generation technology and YES our hospital (Overlook in Summit) has one.
Dr Dan is away to Africa for the next two weeks and we'll talk more about this when he gets back. Until then, chemo is the order of the day.
From what we could discern this is a coming-together of various experts and leaders in various disciplines, radiology, oncology, surgery etc.. The agenda is to review key patients' cases both in terms of knowledge sharing (how the patient is doing) as well as idea generation (where to go next).
Not that Dr Dan doesn't know what to do next but rather he wants to solicit input and guidance from a wide audience to get the best possible outcome for Karen.
Dr Dan told us the group was VERY impressed with her. The group reviewed ALL her scans, all the way back to April 2007, not just the last set. Without treatment this time last year, she'd no longer be with us. Thanks to the treatment plan and her determination we are in a much better situation. Her tumors have shrunken, some have died. Microscopic disease is likely still around and we'll continue on chemo for that. The next step is to decide what ELSE we can do.
There are a couple of options;
- Surgery - to remove what she has left in the liver.
- Radio Frequency Ablation - To burn what's left.
- Embolization - to remove the tumors' blood supply and kill it.
- SirSpheres - to Irradiate what's left with tiny tiny bits of stuff that carry radiation into the tumors.
- CyberKnife treatment - This one we talked quite a bit on and I think it's where Dr Dan is leaning.
The procedure is painless and done on an out-patient basis. It's also extremely accurate with radiation being targeted to the sub-millimeter. As if that wasn't enough the entire procedure is done by robots!
There are a number of videos on YouTube that describe how it works. This is truly next-generation technology and YES our hospital (Overlook in Summit) has one.
Dr Dan is away to Africa for the next two weeks and we'll talk more about this when he gets back. Until then, chemo is the order of the day.
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