New to the board but I thought I would post a my relative's success story to offer some hope to others going through melanoma.
My relative is a male aged 76 years in good health who had a small 'pimple' like mole removed from his face in October 2011. On biopsy, it was diagnosed as melanoma and measured at 2.5 mm in depth. He then had a large excision of the area and had clear margins. He also received a baseline PET scan with no metastases found.
New to the board but I thought I would post a my relative's success story to offer some hope to others going through melanoma.
My relative is a male aged 76 years in good health who had a small 'pimple' like mole removed from his face in October 2011. On biopsy, it was diagnosed as melanoma and measured at 2.5 mm in depth. He then had a large excision of the area and had clear margins. He also received a baseline PET scan with no metastases found.
In May of 2012 he had a follow-up PET scan and they found 2 small metastases in his lungs, so he was staged at stage 4. The mets were biopsied for cellular analysis and they did not have the BRAF mutation. After a couple of weeks he began infusions of Yervoy (ipilimumab). He received all 4 infusions about 3 weeks apart each and he had minimal side effects, very limited rash and a little itching, some mild stomach upset, felt cold quite often and also was irritable. Other than some anti-nasea medication, he had no treatment for these symptoms. His doctor was optimistic because these mets were caught relatively early and were still small although I don't know the exact size.
Last week, he had a another PET scan and it showed that the metastases were no longer detectable on the scan!!! Needless to say, he and his family are overjoyed and this result. He does not yet know about follow-up and any potential maintenance treatments. To all around, this has been an amazing development. I'll update when I get more information.
I hope this helps someone out there going through this terrible cancer.
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