Dropped in the Middle of the Ocean - August 7, 2010

My son and I travelled to Manhattan for his appointment with his oncologist, Dr. K at MSKCC. It was a somber meeting in light of his latest CT report, so here's a synopsis:

The first line of chemo, Gem/Tax, failed. The second line, AIM, also failed. The third, DTIC, was effective in shrinking all lung mets initially, but after four more rounds the second scan showed mixed results. That's all they have. There are no other meds, no other chemos, that have been shown to be effective against sarcomas.

So what happens now? Maybe a clinical trial? The doctor gave us the names of 2 doctors, one in Newark, NJ, at the University of Medicine and Dentistry, and a second in San Antonio, TX. Both are involved in clinical trials for various cancers including sarcomas. She suggested we contact both and see if Pete would be eligible for any open trials. She also told Pete that she would give him some "informed consent" forms to read through, in case he would like to be included in a Phase I trial at MSKCC. (I'll get to THAT a little later.)

I asked the doctor about the research I had done and showed her the list of drugs/trials I had found. Going down the list, she pointed out that Pete would not be considered a candidate for one reason or another. The exclusions were that he had brain mets, he had already been on a chemo that is in the same class as the one being tested, he has the wrong kind of sarcoma, etc.

She mentioned briefly that since he did have that positive response to DTIC, which is a single agent, it can be administered along with an additional drug, in this case Doxil, a derivative of doxorubicin. It seems that introducing a second agent sometimes kicks things back into motion.

So where does that leave us? I have to admit that I felt as though Pete and I had been dropped into the middle of a vast, empty ocean.

By the time we got home it was too late in the evening to place any calls, and we did not have time nor the energy to recover from this "kick in the gut" and digest what had taken place. As it was Friday, we would have two days to think, discuss, and research so that we could formulate a plan. We need to be on our feet and running first thing Monday morning.