my scan results

Hello,

I had my PET/CT scan yesterday and got my results today at an appointment with my oncologist. Results... CT portion of the scan showed that all nodules in liver and lungs are stable- all except for one nodule in my lungs & that one more than doubled in size from 0.6 cm to 1.4 cm. The PET portion of the scan showed increased activity in all areas of lungs, liver, and rectum. The weird thing about the rectum is that two scans in a row have shown increased PET activity, but nothing shows up there on the CT portion of the scan. I had an exam by my colorectal specialist (Dr. Ramamoorthy, for those of you in San Diego who know her) last week and she felt a nodule, which she estimated about a 1/2 cm. I asked my oncologist why that wouldn't have shown up on the scan. He said that if it's on the inside of the rectum under a certain size, it often won't show up on scans.
Given that it's been bothering me more lately (lots of blood and mucus), Dr. Ramamoorthy and my onc Dr. Helton both agree it should come out. I'm going in this coming week for a cyberknife evaluation on that (and maybe they'll look at that growing lung nodule too). He did say, however, that sometimes the cyberknife rad docs are hesitant to do it on the inside of the rectum because it could possible cause a hole in the rectum, which would result in emergency surgery. So I told him that I'd rather not consider it then, but he said still go for the evaluation and see what they have to say. If that doesn't work out, it looks like I'll be having an internal rectal excision of the nodule at some point. We'd have to figure out the timing, since it would mean I'd have to stop the Avastin for 6 wks prior and 6 wks after. We're also going to be looking into clinical drug trials & I'm most interested at this time in pursuing the one with Dr. Lenz at USC with the drug that targets the cancer stem cells. On that, I emailed Lenz's assistant 2 days ago & she replied that they still haven't been given the green light yet on the trial & to email back in 2 more weeks. I don't know that I'd even qualify- it's so hard waiting. Also, as with all clinical trials, all chemo would have to be stopped 4 weeks beforehand. We won't stop it yet though, because we have no idea when it's going to start and if I can get in.
Dr. Helton talked about how the combo of the Gemzar/Xeloda/Avastin seems to be working now like a dam wall- holding things back, but now it may be springing a few leaks. He's convinced I'd be worse off if I weren't taking anything, but with the constant increase in PET uptake the last two scans now, it clearly isn't giving us the results we'd like.

So far as all the supplements I started a month ago...I stopped them two weeks ago because I decided I better be just on the chemo for my scan to see what it's doing. My thought was that if the supplements were actually helping (which there's really no way of knowing), I then wouldn't have been certain if my scan results were influenced in any way by the supplements & we needed to know how the chemo alone was affecting it.
So, I did have a drop in CEA of 14 points when I first started the supplements, then just a 1 point drop the time after (3 wks later). It was at that point, about 2-1/2 wks ago, that I stopped them. I'm going to resume them again now- my onc told me he doesn't know if they'll help or not but they really won't hurt so, why not?

Emotionally, I really am okay today (& my husband is too- I believe that's an answer to prayer- he usually gets so down and depressed anytime I have a scan that doesn't show tumor size reduction). I don't have that nervous upset feeling in my gut at all. I honestly and logically don't know why, except that I know many are praying for me and I am a believer who believes God hears all those prayers. As a believer, I don't believe He is ignoring the prayers and that he does hear them, but I believe that there must be a purpose in all this. I'm even wondering if maybe God allowed one nodule to grow, because I do know that Dr. Lenz has a requirement of some kind of tumor growth showing on a CT scan in order to even be considered for this stem cell drug clinical trial.
So, a lot is still uncertain & I will let you all know how the cyberknife eval goes. Oh- I mentioned nanoknife to my onc & he said he has referred a few patients there (UCI, the only place it's done in Calif) & all of the patients he's referred there ended up not getting it done. Supposedly the docs up there said surgery or cyberknife would be better to do (at least on those particular patients)- so he said he'd rather me not go there.

So, thanks again to all who are wishing me well and/or praying for me- I value you all & I want to let you know that you are all on my mind and in my prayers too.

Hugs,
Lisa