Dana-Farber

Sorry for the quality of the pictures from the car but we were getting our sorry asses out of there and I had just forgotten to take blog pictures before that point. What else was on my mind?

The visit to Dana-Farber went well. The physician I met with Dr. Bruce Johnson is about to publish a paper on gene therapy with Dr. Bunn.  I met with him last year in Denver last year for a second opinion. Out of 22 lung cancer specialists at The Farber - what are the chances I would end up with a connection like that.

He made things sound less bleak than I was hearing after the mets developed in my spine. He feels I should go ahead with the chemo in Boulder and then go into Denver for some targeted gene (HER2) treatments. There is a trial going on there that recently started. There is also one opening in June (I think) for immune enhancement for non-small cell adenocarcenoma - just what I have. I am excited that I may be eligible for each of these trials and he feels the targeted therapy can add a year on to my life. He also said the treatment I had before was as tough as it gets for my cancer so now I know I can handle whatever they throw at me!

A friend who is also going through stage 4 lung cancer treatment just said "It sucks" and I guess it does but I'm not feeling that right now. Maybe I am past that response (at the moment) because I feel like I had been given a year or two to live and now it feels like I can go longer with a decent quality of life and also help with the trials to help others down the road so they won't need the primitive chemo that we are given now. I really hope I can partake in these trials. It is also very exciting to see the progress in the past year. When I had my genetic testing done a year ago there weren't any drugs for my HER2 gene and now there are. Thank you research.