Hi everyone,
Well, for once I have a little more interesting news.
Yesterday I had a CT scan on the lungs with the usual results – still have
lesions growing in size and number in the lungs but still the doctor is okay
with it. What he is a bit concerned about however, is my weight loss over
the past couple months. I’ve lost 7 pounds, which doesn’t sound like a
lot, but based on my weight prior to that, the steady decline could mean the
cancer is going after some of my body fat and muscle. For this reason,
Dr. B is thinking about changing the treatment I am on.
Just a week or so before this appointment, there was news
that Astra-Zeneca is providing “extended access” of its new drug, AZD-9291, the
3rd generation of Tarceva we’ve been waiting for the FDA to
approve. This means that at about 10 different treatment centers around
the U.S., Astra-Zeneca will be dispensing this new drug even before it is
approved by the FDA and made available to the general public. I fit all
the requirements for the patients who can have extended access except for one
that we don’t know for sure. There is an additional mutation called T790M
that my cancer needs to carry that is the cause for its resistance to the
Tarceva. At this time, we don’t know what the cause is for my cancer’s
resistance. It could be this additional mutation or something else.
I will need to have a biopsy in order to determine. Fortunately, another
new development in the medical world is a procedure for getting cancer DNA from
a blood draw instead of the usual biopsy from the tumor itself. This
means I don’t have to have surgery and that I don’t have to worry about having
a tumor large enough to sample.
It will take two weeks to get the results from the blood
sample. So until then, I will continue on my current treatment. If
I have the T790M mutation, I will be going to Lansing, Michigan, the closest
location for the drug being dispensed, to get it.
So here I am once again hoping to be a mutant of a
particular sort.
Even if I don’t end up having T790M, I will still be able to
access the AZD-9291 drug once it is approved by the FDA. That is supposed
to be happening before the end of the year, and according to Dr. B’s latest
intel, before the end of October.
Things are looking up!
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