Another Hurdle Crossed

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Another Hurdle Crossed

I got the results of my latest chest/abdomen CT scan. They are mixed at best - in general existing tumors are not smaller, there are new nodules on my left lung, and some new lesions on my liver as well. As a result I am not doing any more chemo therapy right now. In fact, I may now meet the criteria for the Pfizer study related to my ALK mutant gene. I need to have another scan and a whole battery of screening exams (taking a full day) to see if I meet all of the criteria for the study. The bulk of the screening will be done in Indianapolis on Wednesday August 24. This will be an important day! I will know the outcome of the screening the same day or the next day. Assuming I meet all of the criteria I could be taking the study drug before the end of the month.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...: Keeping you in our thoughts and prayers.... and crossing our fingers just for good measure! Hope all goes well in Indianapolis later this month... we'll be anxious to hear how it all went.
Best of luck too!
Love,
Cindy and Bill; August 16, 2011 at 8:41 AM

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About Dick

This section provides background on how my cancer was discovered and a few key dates associated with the 2-year journey.

In mid-August 2008, I was taking a shower when I coughed up a small amount of blood. I would probably not have gone to the doctor for that alone, but I already had an appointment for allergy problems. I mentioned it to the doctor at the end of my exam. He thought it was probably nothing, but recommended that I go for a chest x-ray.

An HOUR after the x-ray, he called to say that there was a mass and I should schedule a CT scan immediately.

That led to a visit to the pulmonary doctor, who did a bronchoscopy and a PET scan. On Sept. 10th, he diagnosed me with "non-small cell" lung cancer. The tumor is somewhat larger than a golf ball.

For perspective, I have NEVER smoked. Only 15% of those with lung cancer are non-smokers, and less than half of those are men. Needless to say, I am in the minority in terms of people that get lung cancer. Never the less, it is very real and must be treated aggressively.

On Sept. 29th I had surgery to remove the upper right lobe of my lung, as well as three lymph nodes. The surgery took 2+ hours. I was in the hospital for four days.

On Wednesday October 1 we learned that the pathology report was not good. In addition to the cancer in the upper right lobe of my lung, there was also cancer in at least one lymph node. The pathology clarified that the cancer is adenocarcinoma. While lung cancer is normally associated with smoking, about 10% of the people with this particular type of cancer are non-smokers.

Following surgery, I had chemotherapy from Nov 2008 - Jan 2009, then radiation in Feb & Mar 2009. Scans from May 2009 - Feb 2010 were "clean" with no cancer. On June 2, 2010, an MRI showed a brain tumor. The older updates to this blog track the progress during recovery from surgery, as well as initial chemo and radiation treatments. The more recent entries provide updates on the 2010 brain tumor and treatments.

Dick Clark - Cincinnati

Tuesday, August 9, 2011