My brother is Stage IV with mets in brain, lungs, adrenal, and intestines. Had WBR in early July and started Zelboraf in late July. He had no problem with side effects. MRI in early September showed old brain mets stable, but 3 new ones appeared. Clearly, Zelboraf wasn't doing what we wanted in the brain. However, we didn't know what was happening in the rest of his body. Was Zelboraf working there?
My brother is Stage IV with mets in brain, lungs, adrenal, and intestines. Had WBR in early July and started Zelboraf in late July. He had no problem with side effects. MRI in early September showed old brain mets stable, but 3 new ones appeared. Clearly, Zelboraf wasn't doing what we wanted in the brain. However, we didn't know what was happening in the rest of his body. Was Zelboraf working there?
So he stayed on Zelboraf for 3 more weeks (total 2 months) and got CT scans yesterday. All non-brain tumors shrunk by 50% or more; several small ones gone entirely (including adrenal), and no new ones. That's great! We don't know what's going on with the brain– did those mets get started in the 4 weeks before he began Zelboraf? Is Zelboraf doing some good in the brain but just not enough? Nobody knows. Zel is too new for anybody to have much experience with it. Trying to schedule gamma knife at Moffitt now. Will continue Zelboraf for 2 more months and then repeat MRI and CT. Overall, very good news. Champagne tonight for all!!
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