SOME GOOD NEWS

Here it is more than 4 months since my diagnosis and more than 3 months since beginning treatments. I have had 7 cycles of chemotherapy. Earlier this month I had the first PET scan since beginning treatment. It was compared to the scan done just before the treatments. The treatments are working well for now. The cancer can no longer be detected in the esophagus or the lymph nodes. The tumor in my lung has shrunk in size from 3.5cm to 2.0cm. It had a standardized uptake value (SUV) of 3.2 compared to 10.7 on the previous scan. The SUV is a measurement of how much of the radioactive dye is absorbed. Less is better. On the first scan, the radiologist reported that nearly the entire liver was involved with metastatic disease. SUV measured up to 16.0. On the report for the most recent scan the radiologist reported that there is disease remaining but there has been “dramatic interval improvement” . SUV only measured up to 6.6. So it was a very good result. There was improvement every place that cancer had previously been detected. It has not appeared anywhere else. That’s the best result we could ask for at this point. My cancer is not gone. It probably never will be. But for now it is under control and the longer we can keep it under control the longer I will live. My doctor often talks about “quality of life” which you really don’t want to hear because it actually means enjoy life while you can, you don’t have much left. But she’s right. Quality of life is important and right now mine is great thanks primarily to my wife but also to all of my family and friends. So we carry on.