Dacarbazine - March 31, 2010

This morning Pete picked up a copy of the CT report and it did clarify why one of the nodules was reported to have grown a tremendous amount. It seems that the tumor that increased from 6.6 x 2.4 cm to 7.7 x 6.4 cm came about when "several small nodules that were adjacent to the larger mass became confluent with it". The previous report from January identified 10 individual nodules. There are now only 6; the largest is a result of the merger of 5 into 1.

The recommendation by Dr. K (MSKCC) was to change Pete's chemo to Dacarbazine, so he had his first infusion this afternoon. Tomorrow afternoon he'll get his Nulasta shot (white blood cell booster). In 2 weeks he'll go in for blood work to check his white blood cell count, and then the next treatment will be in week 3.

This drug is listed as being "highly emetogenic", so at the end of the session, the nurse directed him to take one of the anti-nausea drugs this evening and to continue taking them for the next several days, even if he felt fine.

His first chemo treatment was Gem/Tax, the second was AIM (I'm not going to count the Rapamune, which is now discontinued) so this is the third attempt to find a treatment that will work at reducing the size of the tumors. Right now that old saying about "three's a charm" sounds pretty good to me.

Some Good, Some Not - September 22, 2009

We spoke with Dr. K (MSKCC) regarding the results of last Thursday's CT scan before they started the chemo today. She said that they were a bit confusing because some of the lesions had reduced in size, others had increased and some are unchanged. One seems to have disappeared, but there is now a lymph node near his heart that is affected, but it was not in the previous scan.

She seemed cautiously optimistic but also very concerned about the mixed results. I asked her if it was at all possible that it is due to the fact that there was almost a month between the scan and the first chemo treatment. She checked the dates for each and said that might explain it.

If there were no changes or if there were only increases in the size or number then she would change to a different treatment, one that is less tolerable and has more pronounced side effects. She felt that the scan results were not definitive enough to warrant that change and so he will remain with the original treatments for 2 full cycles (about 5-6 weeks) and then another scan.

I would feel better about this if there had NOT been that stupid lymph node. And of all places, near his heart.