BMS936558* Votrient trial (formerly MDX 1106) John's 18 week scan

Paula and Fox (here we go again)-

Thank you both for that soulnergy. May it go full circle on this board healing everyone it touches.

Paula-when do you expect to hear results? Been thinking about you all day. Thumbs up!

Thanks Ange. Keeping our fingers crossed; definitely right direction.

Thank you all for your pick-us-up comments. You are all right; this is good news. MyBad. No more whiney posts just happy, grateful ones.

John just celebrated his one year anniversary (cancer diagnosis) and the difference in how we feel now compared to then is astonishng. Standing in that Doctor's office a year ago getting the kidney cancer with metastisis diagnosis was like being sent to death row. And now with all the options and possibilities out there, we both feel blessed. We also feel the soulnergy we can always count on from all of you. Thank you so much for reigning us back in when we step outside that beam of light we all provide each other.

Just to verify, John is still in BMS936558/Votrient trial. I know I confused some with the mention of Afinitor, but you're right Fox; it's too soon to think of that.

As far as the verbage used by the research team as far as his scan:
"Report shows everything is stable. This is good news - I know we want to see continued shrinkage, but stable disease is good as well."

And then I responded back: "Is stabilization ever followed by more reduction? I know this is all relatively new but thought I'd pick your brain for experience thus far."

And I received this answer this morning from his Research Nurse. "Yes, we may see some further reduction. Doing scans every 6 weeks makes it really hard to notice small changes. John will now have scans once every 12 weeks, which is the standard of care for kidney cancer. We will see what the RECIST read shows for this CT, and then see what his scan in 12 weeks looks like. If things still look stable at that point, we may consider him to have leveled off - again, stable disease is not a bad thing either!"

So bottom line we're feeling much more positive today. Like some of you mentioned the holidays should be free of scanxiety and --by the time the next scan rolls around--I'll be retired (February 1). YES!!! Life is good and so are all of you; thanks again.

Thank you all for your pick-us-up comments. You are all right; this is good news. MyBad. No more whiney posts just happy, grateful ones.

John just celebrated his one year anniversary (cancer diagnosis) and the difference in how we feel now compared to then is astonishng. Standing in that Doctor's office a year ago getting the kidney cancer with metastisis diagnosis was like being sent to death row. And now with all the options and possibilities out there, we both feel blessed. We also feel the soulnergy we can always count on from all of you. Thank you so much for reigning us back in when we step outside that beam of light we all provide each other.

Just to verify, John is still in BMS936558/Votrient trial. I know I confused some with the mention of Afinitor, but you're right Fox; it's too soon to think of that.

As far as the verbage used by the research team as far as his scan:
"Report shows everything is stable. This is good news - I know we want to see continued shrinkage, but stable disease is good as well."

And then I responded back: "Is stabilization ever followed by more reduction? I know this is all relatively new but thought I'd pick your brain for experience thus far."

And I received this answer this morning from his Research Nurse. "Yes, we may see some further reduction. Doing scans every 6 weeks makes it really hard to notice small changes. John will now have scans once every 12 weeks, which is the standard of care for kidney cancer. We will see what the RECIST read shows for this CT, and then see what his scan in 12 weeks looks like. If things still look stable at that point, we may consider him to have leveled off - again, stable disease is not a bad thing either!"

So bottom line we're feeling much more positive today. Like some of you mentioned the holidays should be free of scanxiety and --by the time the next scan rolls around--I'll be retired (February 1). YES!!! Life is good and so are all of you; thanks again.