Monday, June 9, 2008

We spent the day at the Huntsman today. Nathan had his CT scan, and then we met with his Doctor to discuss results. The good news is that Nathan will not have to do another round of biochemotherapy. Nathan is happy about this because that treatment was very difficult. The other news is that the two spots in his liver are smaller, but the tumor in his lung has actually gotten larger. The Dr. called this a mixed report which apparently only happens 5% of the time. Typically you will have continued growth or shrinkage, not both. Nathan also has a new bump on his scalp. He noticed this over the past of couple of weeks. The Dr. looked at it, and confirmed that it was also melanoma. Luckily, it is just on the surface of the skin.

Since there was a new growth, the Dr. felt that Nathan should try another form of treatment. So some time next week, Nathan will be started on a clinical trial at the Huntsman. My limited understanding of this is that it will require one day at the hospital where he will receive a two hour infusion and he will also take a chemo pill. This process will go on for six weeks, and then he gets two weeks off. Then they will do more scans to see how it is working. So there's the update.

Julie