Well, we got the MRI results back late yesterday afternoon, and it appears there are some small spots in B's neck. We don't know where they spread from, but we do know that means the tumor is spreading, and we have to get at it quick.
So, the official treatment plan has finally been finalized. B will start chemo on Tuesday. He'll get 2 drugs instead of the original plan of 3. The one that is being left out has something to do with blood vessels, and if they gave that to B, surgery would be out of the question for a long while.
The plan is to have B do 2 rounds of this chemo treatment...1 infusion every 3 weeks. This should stop the spreading and kill any of the small spread that's taken place up to now (i.e. neck and hip). After the 6 weeks are up, B will have another CT scan or MRI and we'll see if the drugs did their job. If everything looks good, then B can have the hip surgery.
Dr. #4 is pretty certain that the chemo won't damage the tissue in B's hip. That means that when B goes under the knife for the hip replacement, Dr. #8 should still be able to get enough good tissue for the tests. The test results will help us treat the whole cancer on a more specific regimen, i.e. chemo with specific drugs or Tarceva or some other drug. Considering we still aren't certain on the source, those tests of the hip tissue will tell us a lot....when we get there.
In the meantime, we're both happy B will finally be getting some systemic treatment. It seems like it's been forever since the original diagnosis, and this whole time we've been doing nothing to stop or kill the cancer. So, yes, it sucks that we are forced into playing the chemo card, but we're relieved that something is finally going to get done.
