› Forums › General Melanoma Community › Sternum reoccurrence
- This topic has 12 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 8 years, 6 months ago by beans920.
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- June 10, 2016 at 6:15 pm
I've posted before but will give and update now of my treatment plan. Been through the ippy and interferon trial and had great response other than pituitary burnout. I also had a spot left on my sternum that looked dead with no activity. About a year later it fired back up and was caught in my quarterly cscan. I underwent radiation which again appeared dead on cscan but now 6 months later its back and growing. Been seeing an oncologist in Wisconsin but he's sending me back to Mayo which started my original plan. Arrived at Mayo monday had Pet scan , bloodwork,and chest xray and saw my oncologist on Tuesday morning. Looked at the petscan and He believes previous radiation missed the spot or wasn't strong enough. He is not happy with past treatment of radiation. I am set up for the start of Pembro on Wed. and will see the radiology department to plan another radiation assault on this thing. Pembro went fine and radiologist is pissed off. My heart is partially in the way of a magnum blast of radiation so I will head back to radiology on Thursday to see if deep breathing will pull my heart out of the way. Thursday morning out of underwear but comando is fine. Had test in radiology dept. and Dr. is very happy as I am able to move my heart out of the blast range. Came home Thursday evening and Dr.s and radiologist are taking next week to plan it out. Tentative schedule is 10 treatments over 10 days beginning on 6/20 and getting another dose of Pembro on 6/29. Word of warning for radiation, Make sure the first attempt is done with a hospital that knows what there doing. Mayo Dr. says they used kids gloves the first time and nearly screwed this up. I will keep in touch with how it goes. Beans920
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- June 10, 2016 at 11:03 pm
Hi Beans,
I've had similar tumors and treatment and had very mixed results, which came as a bit of a surprise to everyone. Two of mine were in a similar area to yours and one on my back. They were all pretty large, at least the size of an egg, about 8CM. Despite the radiation treatment to each being the same, the one on my back took weeks to respond, but finally began to disappear and can no longer be detected at all. Two between my sternum and shoulder, just below the clavicle were treated simultaneously. They both responded almost immediately and began to shrink and while one is no longer detectable, the other remains a 3cm sized tumor which has remained stable for about 5 months, and now I feel its growing again, and has been causing pain to the bone nearby. So the message I got from all this, is that even within the same person, and all things being equal, different tumors can still respond differently. Melanoma is such an elusive bitch. BTW, in my case the added benefit of radiation I believe was the kicker, and got me an increased response to immunotherapy. There is proven synergy in the combo. Best to you in the battle.
Gary
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- June 10, 2016 at 11:03 pm
Hi Beans,
I've had similar tumors and treatment and had very mixed results, which came as a bit of a surprise to everyone. Two of mine were in a similar area to yours and one on my back. They were all pretty large, at least the size of an egg, about 8CM. Despite the radiation treatment to each being the same, the one on my back took weeks to respond, but finally began to disappear and can no longer be detected at all. Two between my sternum and shoulder, just below the clavicle were treated simultaneously. They both responded almost immediately and began to shrink and while one is no longer detectable, the other remains a 3cm sized tumor which has remained stable for about 5 months, and now I feel its growing again, and has been causing pain to the bone nearby. So the message I got from all this, is that even within the same person, and all things being equal, different tumors can still respond differently. Melanoma is such an elusive bitch. BTW, in my case the added benefit of radiation I believe was the kicker, and got me an increased response to immunotherapy. There is proven synergy in the combo. Best to you in the battle.
Gary
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- June 10, 2016 at 11:03 pm
Hi Beans,
I've had similar tumors and treatment and had very mixed results, which came as a bit of a surprise to everyone. Two of mine were in a similar area to yours and one on my back. They were all pretty large, at least the size of an egg, about 8CM. Despite the radiation treatment to each being the same, the one on my back took weeks to respond, but finally began to disappear and can no longer be detected at all. Two between my sternum and shoulder, just below the clavicle were treated simultaneously. They both responded almost immediately and began to shrink and while one is no longer detectable, the other remains a 3cm sized tumor which has remained stable for about 5 months, and now I feel its growing again, and has been causing pain to the bone nearby. So the message I got from all this, is that even within the same person, and all things being equal, different tumors can still respond differently. Melanoma is such an elusive bitch. BTW, in my case the added benefit of radiation I believe was the kicker, and got me an increased response to immunotherapy. There is proven synergy in the combo. Best to you in the battle.
Gary
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- June 12, 2016 at 2:46 pm
Hey Beans!
Bless your heart! For realz!! Oh my goodness! What you have already been through and then to have to "hold" your heart out of the way from zappage! You must have nerves of…beans! You are awesome. Hope this round of radiation and the pembro does the trick for you. You probably know this already but thought you might like some rattie affirmation of your radiation/immunotherapy combo treatment plan….here's a post with lots of links within: http://chaoticallypreciselifeloveandmelanoma.blogspot.com/2015/10/review-of-abscopal-responses-after.html
Couldn't help but think of a line from a storybook my kids used to love for me to read them when I read your story:
Breathe deep, seek peace! – Dinotopia
Wishing you my best, Celeste
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- June 12, 2016 at 2:46 pm
Hey Beans!
Bless your heart! For realz!! Oh my goodness! What you have already been through and then to have to "hold" your heart out of the way from zappage! You must have nerves of…beans! You are awesome. Hope this round of radiation and the pembro does the trick for you. You probably know this already but thought you might like some rattie affirmation of your radiation/immunotherapy combo treatment plan….here's a post with lots of links within: http://chaoticallypreciselifeloveandmelanoma.blogspot.com/2015/10/review-of-abscopal-responses-after.html
Couldn't help but think of a line from a storybook my kids used to love for me to read them when I read your story:
Breathe deep, seek peace! – Dinotopia
Wishing you my best, Celeste
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- June 12, 2016 at 2:46 pm
Hey Beans!
Bless your heart! For realz!! Oh my goodness! What you have already been through and then to have to "hold" your heart out of the way from zappage! You must have nerves of…beans! You are awesome. Hope this round of radiation and the pembro does the trick for you. You probably know this already but thought you might like some rattie affirmation of your radiation/immunotherapy combo treatment plan….here's a post with lots of links within: http://chaoticallypreciselifeloveandmelanoma.blogspot.com/2015/10/review-of-abscopal-responses-after.html
Couldn't help but think of a line from a storybook my kids used to love for me to read them when I read your story:
Breathe deep, seek peace! – Dinotopia
Wishing you my best, Celeste
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