Cheri and I met with the oncologist and he seemed very good. The facility is impressive and the doctor listened, fully answered questions with background information and seemed totally up on the latest treatments.
They will biopsy, with a needle, a tumor in my lungs to make sure it's kidney cancer cells. If it's not, they'd probably surgically remove the damaged kidney. If it is, he talked about "living with cancer". He says that it is not a matter of how long you have now but to live with this like you'd live with another disease like diabetes. He says there have been amazing advances for this illness in the past decade with treatment going from one approved method (chemo. IL-2) to 5. That means far more things to try to push back or cure the cancer invasion.
He said that surgery isn't recommended where the cancer has entered the blood and invaded other areas. It doesn't get rid of the spread out cancer cells. You have to go after the cancer on a broader scale with a treatment that affects all the areas invaded.
We walked out of there more optimistic since this is the man that knows this illness best, compared to the general pract. or the surgeon urologist.
He also said that they work with UCLA and do their trials here at St. Jude. He suggested a world class specialist in kidney cancer from USC, a Dr. Quinn, for the second opinion. He said that this would get us a couple things. Trials being done with USC would be available to me if treating there (to have two teaching/research hospitals at my access) and that another "set of eyes" on the records can lead to different views and treatment suggestions.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
That sounds good Ralph! I like good news, but what are you doing posting at 3:20am? I'm only up that late at a LAN party!
ReplyDeleteThanks for keeping us updated man. UCLA is awesome -- that is where I had my cancer treatment (Cryoablation -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryoablation)when I was a young lad. My doctor seriously knew his stuff and to this day I remember his name.
ReplyDeleteEven though it was experimental at the time he made me feel comfortable with the decisions I made.
Hey Ralph, Rey here, you are a tough guy and I think you will beat it
ReplyDeleteWow Paul! I didn't know about that. I'm glad you've done so well. It must have been really tough. That procedures is pretty amazing.
ReplyDelete