No More Chemo

I saw my oncologist this morning to get the CT Scan results and essentially after 6 rounds of chemo and radiation to my hip and head, the best we accomplished is "stable" disease. In other words, no new growth. I can't continue on with that chemo since the accumulated effects will get worse and the good being accomplished is limited. So I will continue with the hormone therapy, a therapy that is decades old and doesn't work that well or that long. The doctor is going to try to get me considered for a clinical trial on a drug that works by cutting off the blood supply to tumors. It has not been studied on endometrial cancer so it seems unlikely they will accept me. If they are going to consider it, I will have to do a bunch of additional testing to see if I am eligible. The drug is VERY expensive and not covered by insurance, but if accepted into the trial, it will be free.

We also asked about surgery and it sounds like he has given up on that because the chemo didn't do the job of substantially shrinking the tumors. There is no point in putting me though a complex, risky surgery when I would still have bulky tumors elsewhere that can't be ressected.

So I think we're coming to the end of the line on treatment options. If I don't get into the clinical trial, all we can do now is try to keep me feeling as healthy as I can for as long as I can. The plan is to scan again in a couple months and see how the hormone therapy is working on it's own. I can still do radiation to the hip and head again. As far as I know, that is not an option for the spleen. The couple months will give me a chance to recover some strength for the battle ahead. We did not talk time frames at all. That may come up next time when we see what's happened without the chemo.

So the good news is a two month break from treatment. Maybe I'll get some hair back so I can lose the hat. (yay!) The bad news... my time is limited... I just don't know how limited. It has been a slow growing cancer. Maybe that means it will take longer. I'm sure they will do palliative care where they can to relieve symptoms.

Speaking of which, there is no indication the tumor in my hip is growing so my odd hip (butt really) discomfort may just be related to the hip bone thinning due to radiation.