Small World Big Hearts

Hi all,

A quick note from the East about today's visit to DFCI, I know a lot of folks are waiting for an update. Andy started early today at Dana Farber. He had a full body scan to check on how the Tarceva is doing against the cancer, and then met with Dr Janne later in the morning.

The treatment is working on the tumors in his soft tissue (lung, liver) but not as effective for the metastases to his bones. The Dr is encouraged that the tumor in his lung, as well as the lesions in his liver, appear to be getting smaller, and we are all grateful for this good news. The tumors on his bones in his spine, ribs appear to either be stable or growing a bit, so we are taking two new approaches to his treatment.

The drug dosage will be increased to battle those sites that are not responding. He is also going back on Zometa, a drug that is delivered by IV to help bulk up his bones as he fights the cancer. Andy received his first infusion today and will receive infusions every six weeks; he responded well to this when it was administered as an adjunct therapy during his chemo regimen in the spring.

I was struck as I always am at DFCI by everyone who cares for the patients, from the valets, to the secretaries, to the nurses, researchers, doctors - everyone - has a huge heart. It is such an amazing place, you feel blessed to be there getting treated by some of the best and smartest people who truly want to beat cancer as much as the patients do.

And today I was also struck by how small this world is. I received an email this morning from a woman who I had met on a cancer website; she had reached out to me early in Andy's fight to let me know about her daughter's very similar (mid 30s, nonsmoker, Stage IV NSCLC) battle, and to recommend the genetic mutation testing. I learned as we were getting Andy started with DFCI that her daughter has consulted over the past year with Dr Janne on her treatment. Emily is also from the West Coast - and it being a small world was in Boston and at DFCI to meet Dr Janne today. Emily, her husband Todd and I met up after Andy's appointment and before hers - it is always nice to talk to other folks who are going through this, and was especially poignant as I feel like in some ways we have been on similar journeys with her and Andy's battles. Emily looked great, she is also responding well to the Tarceva and it provided hope to meet her.

I'm sure we'll write more in the next few days -

Tim