Spoke with my new Oncologist. Really good things.
First are the standard treatments available. I ran through FOLFOX, FOLFORI and Lonsurf. The last one left was Stivarga, but that is know for being nasty. The one that my other doctor said may not be worth using because whatever extension of life would be really bad. Of course I would probably try it if I had no other options. I could try FOLFOX again for a few rounds before neuropathy. But the best news is that FDA approved a new drug, Fruquintinib, two months ago. It looks to be more effective than Stivarga, with less side effects.
Second are the results being reported for CRC patients who have gotten immunotherapy. These results are new since immunotherapy has not been used much in CRC until recently. 80% of patients who had stable cancer from immunotherapy continued to have stable cancer two years after stopping the immunotherapy. (It could last longer, but at this time there is enough date for two years to be looked at it seems.)
Third, my cancer changed again. A new mutation, which I did not have two years ago when my last sequencing was done two years ago, has developed. This mutation is one that is an indicator of a cancer that will response to immunotherapy, which may be why I did so well on this trial. There are also trials out there that are targeted to this mutation that are successful. In connection with this, I will probably have a biopsy in the near future to get more details on my cancer and mutations since new tissue samples will provide more details as to this mutation and whether my cancer is now MSI, among other things. This biopsy will be on one of two large tumors in my lungs, which are the two which are starting to grow a bit.
This biopsy will be done before any action is taken to address the lung tumors, whenever that becomes necessary since proton therapy would destroy them and we could not get samples.
I will be having a chest the end of March. This will be to get a sense of how the two large lung tumors are growing.
So the plan is to get the biopsy to get a detailed idea of the current state of my cancer. We will then monitor my cancer before doing the next thing. In all likelihood the next thing will be to "nuke" the two main lung tumors if they get too big, then monitor the rest of the cancer. There seems to be an 80% chance that the rest of the cancer will be stable for at least two years. (My CEA dropped yesterday for the first time in a few months 😀) If and when the cancer starts growing, then I have at least one new drug and a few trials to jump into.
Though it is not always easy, this is why I keep on pushing as much as I can. I just got to have my leg heal up so I can start exercising again. The EMG and MRI coming up should provide more answers on that.
#iTRI4aCURE
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