MRI Results – 8/19/09
MRI, My Story August 23rd, 2009
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Before I left for Tahoe, I had an MRI as a recheck just to ensure I wasn’t experiencing any growth. Sometimes an MRI is a result of a patient being symptomatic of course. As you may have read, I had a fairly significant seizure so it was necessary. My last MRI was July 12th which showed a reduction in size when compared to the May scan. This MRI came back showing further shrinkage and it was done a little more than 30 days later. The tumor cavity has further collapsed, showing that cancer cells are being killed off. This is great news!
Several theories. One is certainly my use of DCVax. I started this in April and it may be moving in a very positive direction. I’ve discontinued my use of thalamid – this was 45 days ago. I want to see if that’s necessary. I’ll know in the not-too-distant future. The second is Gamma Knife. This was done in March. A third – use of Avastin every several weeks via IV. We can also look at combinations of each.
My own sense. It’s a combination of all three. How’s that. There is a theory with GBMs and perhaps many brain other primary brain tumors that you keep the tumor guessing to keep it simple. The Gamma Knife blew away, as much as possible, a small nodule of growth. The Avastin typically keeps it in check. In spite of past failures using Avastin + CPT-11 (Irinotecan), we decided to use DCVax with Avastin. I believe most of our success comes from DCVax. I’m sure I put data here. You can do a search on the site and find info.
We are very happy that we have had 2 scans showing a reduction in size. We’ve only ever managed “stable”, never some positive success. We’ve of course had failure along the way, such as last Octiber when my tumor was an Oligoastrocytoma 3 and went through an anaplastic transformation to a GBM that resulted in surgery.
A great weekend…
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Mark, so glad to hear the positive news. I just read your last 2 postings to my husband, Marc. You really are lucky that your tumor was in an easy location to do the Gamma knife and DCVax. Marc and I just discussed this and his tumor is not in an area where this could be done without further possible problems. So he will continue the Avastin and hope and pray for more shrinkage and just maybe more than the “stable” news also. We are so happy that you are doing well. You give us hope. Have a great week.
Stacey
Woo Hoo!!!
Here is a link to the national PSA I told you about. Let’s see if we can’t start raising some awareness regarding DCVax and brain cancer. It’s about time people start realizing that there is a cancer out there, where almost the same number are diagnosed as breast cancer.
Give me a call when you have a chance if you wish to discuss.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBuyKhgsotQ
Bob Gibbs
http://www.milesforhope.org