Dr. Cantrell

lisa42 said:

It's me
Hi!

It's me- I've been on Dr. Cantrell's treatment since I visited him on December 3-4.
I started the Lovastatin pills the evening of Dec. 4, but actually began the first interferon injection on Dec. 13. Dr. Cantrell considers the start of treatment the first day of interferon injections. So from Dec. 13 to now, I've been on the treatment 6-1/2, almost 7 weeks. I don't know what's going on in me yet- I will have to wait for a scan. I actually need to call back insurance today to see what's going on, as it still hasn't been scheduled yet, but it should be around Feb. 12-15. I'm flying back to Nashville again on Feb. 16 for a Feb. 17 follow up appt w/ Dr. Cantrell.
The only hint of how things might be going so far is my bloodwork CEA levels. CEA has always been a good indicator for me (it isn't for everyone), so we've been checking it every 2 weeks during this time. Dr. C. told me at the beginning of treatment that this isn't quite as fast acting as starting up chemo & that he wasn't going to be surprised if my CEA continued to rise up until about 6 weeks of treatment. I last had it checked on Jan 20th, which was 5-1/2 weeks into treatment. My CEA had risen up to 64, where it was about 18 when I started the treatment. It wasn't a thrill finding that out, and I did speak to Dr. Cantrell that evening. He said he didn't like what the numbers were doing, BUT he also said that he wasn't going to rely just on CEA because it might not neccessarily correlate to how I'm really doing & to what will or won't show up on my upcoming scan. He also reminded me that the "turn around" is around this time & so the next CEA blood check mid next week (which will be 7-1/2 wks into treatment) will be more telling. So I calmed down a bit and will just wait and see what the next CEA is and, of course, what the actual scan shows. When he sees my scan, he said he'll consider it a good thing if my tumors are at least stable and nothing has grown but, of course, having them start to shrink would be even better. Yesterday I called the nurse at his office about getting the paperwork for my next blood draw when she then told me that Dr. Cantrell asked her to tell me that he's planning on calling me in the next couple of days again. Apparently, he has a new idea of something that he's been reading about and researching that he might like to add to my treatment. So, hopefully I'll hear from him soon and find out exactly what this is.

So far as how I've been feeling on the treatment, I've definitely had mostly good days, but I have also had some days where I felt pretty bad from the interferon. The Lovastatin hasn't seemed to affect me in any negative way at all. The worst was a week and a half ago, where I could barely lift my head up and certainly could barely get up due to feeling like I had the flu for a couple of days. I don't think it was the actual flu because it happened within hours of giving myself an injection. It's really weird, though, how sometimes after an injection I feel completely fine and have normal energy. Like these last two days- I had an injection Wed. night & felt the most energetic I've felt in a while yesterday. Dr. Cantrell said I was a couple weeks later than most on when I started to feel some side effects from the interferon. Who knows- maybe that "couple of weeks late" will maybe also correlate to when it starts to work in me.
Maybe (hopefully) it is working & my CEA numbers from last week don't mean the cancer is becoming more active. Or maybe the cancer was continuing to grow, but will still turn around before the scan. He said he can usually tell by 8 weeks of treatment whether it's to going to be helping or not.

I hadn't really been reporting anything about how I've been doing before now because I had wanted to wait until I really knew something after my scan. But since you asked, I told you what I know at this point. I will most definitely report back to everyone after I get my scan results and see Dr. Cantrell again. Actually, if he has anything else of interest to tell me or wants to start me on something else soon, I will let you all know that too.

Keep fighting, everyone!
Lisa

lisa42 said:

two other people on it
Hi again,

Sadly, two people that I've been corresponding with who have also been on Dr. Cantrell's treatment & who have been on it a couple of weeks longer than me have not done so well on it. Their cancer was more advanced (spread to more places) than mine. DAN R who doesn't have colon cancer but esophageal cancer has stopped treatment and is receiving palliative treatment of some sort. I had gotten a PM from his son telling me this about a week or two ago. A woman named Merrie, who's husband found me by googling Dr. Cantrell's name (and my posts here about him came up)is also not doing well and has stopped the treatment. This was definitely discouraging to me, BUT I am reminded that there are definitely many patients of Dr. C. who have done VERY well and even some who have become NED. So... onward I go, hoping and praying I'll be in that category.

lisa42 said:

It's me
Hi!

It's me- I've been on Dr. Cantrell's treatment since I visited him on December 3-4.
I started the Lovastatin pills the evening of Dec. 4, but actually began the first interferon injection on Dec. 13. Dr. Cantrell considers the start of treatment the first day of interferon injections. So from Dec. 13 to now, I've been on the treatment 6-1/2, almost 7 weeks. I don't know what's going on in me yet- I will have to wait for a scan. I actually need to call back insurance today to see what's going on, as it still hasn't been scheduled yet, but it should be around Feb. 12-15. I'm flying back to Nashville again on Feb. 16 for a Feb. 17 follow up appt w/ Dr. Cantrell.
The only hint of how things might be going so far is my bloodwork CEA levels. CEA has always been a good indicator for me (it isn't for everyone), so we've been checking it every 2 weeks during this time. Dr. C. told me at the beginning of treatment that this isn't quite as fast acting as starting up chemo & that he wasn't going to be surprised if my CEA continued to rise up until about 6 weeks of treatment. I last had it checked on Jan 20th, which was 5-1/2 weeks into treatment. My CEA had risen up to 64, where it was about 18 when I started the treatment. It wasn't a thrill finding that out, and I did speak to Dr. Cantrell that evening. He said he didn't like what the numbers were doing, BUT he also said that he wasn't going to rely just on CEA because it might not neccessarily correlate to how I'm really doing & to what will or won't show up on my upcoming scan. He also reminded me that the "turn around" is around this time & so the next CEA blood check mid next week (which will be 7-1/2 wks into treatment) will be more telling. So I calmed down a bit and will just wait and see what the next CEA is and, of course, what the actual scan shows. When he sees my scan, he said he'll consider it a good thing if my tumors are at least stable and nothing has grown but, of course, having them start to shrink would be even better. Yesterday I called the nurse at his office about getting the paperwork for my next blood draw when she then told me that Dr. Cantrell asked her to tell me that he's planning on calling me in the next couple of days again. Apparently, he has a new idea of something that he's been reading about and researching that he might like to add to my treatment. So, hopefully I'll hear from him soon and find out exactly what this is.

So far as how I've been feeling on the treatment, I've definitely had mostly good days, but I have also had some days where I felt pretty bad from the interferon. The Lovastatin hasn't seemed to affect me in any negative way at all. The worst was a week and a half ago, where I could barely lift my head up and certainly could barely get up due to feeling like I had the flu for a couple of days. I don't think it was the actual flu because it happened within hours of giving myself an injection. It's really weird, though, how sometimes after an injection I feel completely fine and have normal energy. Like these last two days- I had an injection Wed. night & felt the most energetic I've felt in a while yesterday. Dr. Cantrell said I was a couple weeks later than most on when I started to feel some side effects from the interferon. Who knows- maybe that "couple of weeks late" will maybe also correlate to when it starts to work in me.
Maybe (hopefully) it is working & my CEA numbers from last week don't mean the cancer is becoming more active. Or maybe the cancer was continuing to grow, but will still turn around before the scan. He said he can usually tell by 8 weeks of treatment whether it's to going to be helping or not.

I hadn't really been reporting anything about how I've been doing before now because I had wanted to wait until I really knew something after my scan. But since you asked, I told you what I know at this point. I will most definitely report back to everyone after I get my scan results and see Dr. Cantrell again. Actually, if he has anything else of interest to tell me or wants to start me on something else soon, I will let you all know that too.

Keep fighting, everyone!
Lisa