The recent PET scan shows that my lung cancer continues to improve and they believe the only spots showing up are scar tissue from the radiation treatments.
The brain MRI scan shows a 4mm nodule (very small) of cancerous activity in the left pyramidal lobe (left side of the head toward the top).
As you probably know, chemo is not effective on brain cancer, so they recommend Stereotactic Radiosurgery. Bascially, this is surgery by radiation, where a single, intense dose of radiation is administered directly to the tumor site in the hopes of killing it with one shot. It's a painless procedure but it requires me to wear a mesh mask and be in the tomotherapy machine for a 45 minute treatment. Side effects are headaches and nausea, both treatable with medication.
The good news is that this is a very small tumor, it was caught early, and that my lung cancer treatment is going so well, they can confidently go after the tumor in the brain.
These results were not completely unexpected. The development of brain cancer is very common to lung cancer patients because it's one of the few places in the body cancer cells can hide from chemo. So the docs will get to work treating this one and monitor me regularly to see if any others pop up.
The appointment is Tuesday morning, October 28th. I haven't been told if there is any down time with this, but I assume there may be. Watch the blog and I'll post as soon as I'm up and around.
This is just the next step but we're getting closer all the time - so stay positive! :-)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment