Hi All -
April and I had some bad news when we met with Dr. Gharavi Monday. We’d been expecting, or at least hoping, that we would get good news regarding a decrease in size of April’s tumors, because her tumor marker tests were showing a nearly 50% drop.
Unfortunately, the CT scan came back with a 25% increase in the size of April’s tumors over the last 8 weeks. So it turns out the Navelbine wasn’t working after all.
Dr. Gharavi said that Navelbine was really the last of the front-line drugs for her disease, and that it’s time for April to start trying stage 1 clinical trials of new chemo drugs. We discussed two different options for trying clinical trials: MD Anderson in Houston and Sarah Cannon in Nashville. MD Anderson has the most clinical trials of any cancer center in the US, and Sarah Cannon has the 2nd most clinical trials.
Dr. Gharavi said the difference would be in the amount of personal attention given – that Sarah Cannon would be able to offer much greater personal attention. And, since it’s much closer, it would be easier to get through the trial in terms of travel time and expense. So we decided to try Sarah Cannon first.
I’m happy to report that this has already turned out to be a good decision: Dr. Gharavi’s office got April an appt for Tuesday of next week with Dr. Howard Burris, Director of Drug Development at the cancer center! Out of 50+ MDs at the Center, Dr. Burris is one of only three Oncolgists with a Director position, and he isn’t even one of the ones whose profile says he’s accepting new patients! So we feel like this is a good move forward for April, and that they’re already showing April the personal attention that Dr. Gharavi said the would offer.
Both April and I wish that we could be sharing better news with you — that her tumors were shrinking at fast clip, or something along those lines. We’re optimistic that this new direction will bring good opportunities for improvement very soon.
Much love to all of you, and we’ll keep you posted!
Mac
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What a shame to have the tumor growth after what looked so promising. It looks like you have another good doctor to work with though so maybe this new treatment will be the one to shrink the tumors. Pete and I are always thinking about you and look forward to seeing you when we visit TN in a few weeks.
Certainly not what we were hoping and praying to read. I’m glad that the folks at Sarah Cannon have been so responsive and accommodating. We’ll continue to pray for and think of you both.
Hang in there April. We love you (oh, and Mac too).
Aaron (and all the rest of the Carters).
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Take care, Dennis