Will is now about 11 days post chemo (carboplatin and taxol, to hopefully reduce tumor burden and allow him time to participate in a better treatment, perhaps Oncovex if we still cannot get ipi). His main problem is extensive liver tumors. However, he had a number of skin lesions that had shown up since April – bumps on his head and two on his face. Since the chemo, all the sub Qs seem to have reduced significantly or disappeared. I know one cannot extrapolate response to other organs, but would this indicate these tumors are responding to the chemo?
Will is now about 11 days post chemo (carboplatin and taxol, to hopefully reduce tumor burden and allow him time to participate in a better treatment, perhaps Oncovex if we still cannot get ipi). His main problem is extensive liver tumors. However, he had a number of skin lesions that had shown up since April – bumps on his head and two on his face. Since the chemo, all the sub Qs seem to have reduced significantly or disappeared. I know one cannot extrapolate response to other organs, but would this indicate these tumors are responding to the chemo? They also went down fast after the biochemo (but that was so toxic it was stopped after 2 rounds – and the tumors returned just as fast as they’d disappeared). Are sub Qs just more responsive to treatment?
For what it’s worth, Will has been feeling quite good the past week. I have not seen much of any side effects from the chemo – mild fatigue but he’s actually feeling better now (he’s on better pain management for hip mets) and has been walking further and more than he has since April. His appetite is good – no hair loss – no other apparent effects. In fact, I would say he’s actually feeling overall better than I’ve seen him feel since perhaps March. His quality of life/performance status is considerably improved. It could be the pain management but perhaps it is also the chemo – I guess only the scans will tell. His former oncologist painted an extremely bleak picture three and a half weeks ago – basically suggested things may be hopeless and would go quickly downhill. And obviously it’s far too early to tell – but I was expecting things to be much worse – and today we were out having coffee and donuts and chatting like we did before he became so ill.
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