Since June 23rd, 2014

Tuesday, May 2, 2017

Irinotecan

  • Bloodwork, appointment with Dr. T and treatment at Siteman South County
We reviewed my latest scans with Dr. T - tumor growth and new tumors in the liver, tumor growth and new tumors in the peritoneum, tumor growth in the pelvis and tumor growth and new tumors in both lobes of both lungs. Basically (and as noted in the MRI and CT reports) - it is the progression of my metastatic disease.

So today I started a chemotherapy drug that has a 50% chance of helping. It is the best option available to me. There is a 20% chance that it will help to shrink my tumors, a 30% chance that it will help my tumors to remain stable and a 50% chance that it will not help at all. That's where we're at... 50%. And with that 50% comes the information that the average survival for patients who are in the place to need to start Irinotecan is one year. Of course that is just the average, some patients survive for years and some patients survive for less. All together, it is a lot of difficult information to process.

Irinotecan is often given with a couple of other drugs and the combination is referred to as Folfori. However, based on my low blood counts and the importance of being to get Irinotecan right away and every other week without interruption, Dr. T thought it was best to start just with the Irinotecan today and to add the support drugs as possible.

No comments:

Post a Comment