Good Report and a New Plan

Bobby's scans last week were all good.  No new spots on the brain, and all the tumors in lungs, adrenal gland and kidney are all stable.  We had a good discussion about whether the Torisel is actually doing anything since nothing is shrinking, or is the cancer just really slow growing. We looked back to scans from a year ago, and we are pretty much in the same place. Cue the happy dance. 

Last fall, we were pursuing the option of enrolling in a clinical trial at NCI (National Cancer Institute) in Bethesda, MD. It was in that process that we learned about the brain tumor, which led to the bleed/surgery/recovery over the past 9 months. Dr Keller mentioned that NCI had told him if Bobby had no recurrence in the brain for 6 months, he might be eligible to enroll in the trial.  He asked if we would be interested in reopening that door, and Bobby responded immediately, "Sure." So Dr Keller got right on the phone, talked to the folks at NCI and confirmed that they would be willing to pursue enrollment. He's sending the latest scans, labs, reports, etc, and we expect to hear something in the next week or so.  In the meantime, we'll skip the next few doses of Torisel since he has to be off treatment at least 4 weeks to enter the trial. 

At this point, there is still more we don't know than we do, and lots of questions, but we are headed down this road for the time being.  And it's not a bad time of year for him to have a treatment break, it's finally good biking weather here.

Thanks for checking up on us.