Heres an update on everything. We finally got back from Duke on Wednesday night after a long day of meeting with the oncologists. The final pathology report came back that my mom does have GBM, which is the aggressive form of brain cancer. With that said, the oncologists are very happy that the MRI shows that the entire tumor was completely removed. Right now, my mom is EXTREMELY tired because of the meds that she is on and will continue to be on for several more days. She is basically needing to rest a lot, but she has still remained pretty active. Thankfully, she qualifies to be put into a clinical trial, and it is a trial that is being re-opened since it has shown promising results in treating GBM. We will have to go back to Duke in a couple of weeks for her to get 5 hours of blood work done, and she will be having a vaccine created specifically for her that will be given to her numerous times after she completes her first phase of standard radiation and chemo. The goal of this vaccine will be to boost her immune system and to fight against cytomegalovirus, which recent research shows may contribute to GBM formation and growth/recurrence. Shell be disqualified from this trial if her MRI in December shows that the tumor has come back. Shell begin 6 weeks of radiation that will likely begin the end of this month along with 42 non-stop days of chemo. This will likely make her feel extremely tired, but she shouldnt lose any of her hair. The anti-nausea drug shell be given will hopefully help with any nausea that may occur. After all of that, shell get a stronger dose of chemo 5 days out of the month along with bi-weekly injections of her vaccine and another drug. The chemo will continue for a year, and from what I understand, shell be in the clinical trial indefinitely. All chemo will be given by mouth. After all of that, well just have to hope and pray that the tumor doesnt come back for a long time, and especially that it wont come back while shes getting all of this treatment. Like Ive said on here before, this is a complex cancer that will require aggressive and different types of treatments. Im very pleased with how things have gone so far, and hopefully everything continues to exceed our expectations. Thanks for all of the support for my mom, and everything that all of you have done. If you cant get in contact with my mom over these next few days, its because shes resting. She has to meet with her local oncologist next week to get the ball rolling on the standard treatment. There are still a lot of decisions to be made so please continue to keep my family in your thoughts and prayers. Thanks.
Posted on: Sat, 11 Oct 2014 01:49:07 +0000