So, after a couple of delays (a lung biopsy that had to be rescheduled and low neutrophil levels), John got his first infusion this past Tuesday.

The infusion itself took only an hour, but he was kept in hospital overnight and had hourly blood tests. He also had to have 3 EKG's. Then on each of the following three days, we had to return to the hospital for more blood tests.

The oncologist had told us that the drug is quite well-tolerated. I have to say that at first I didn't really believe her. But now, after five days, John is still feeling good with no side effects showing and he does not feel significantly different from before. He is still able to go for his daily 45-minute walk in the Canadian winter and putter around in his pottery studio. All this, needless to say, is quite a relief to me.

While we were waiting for John's blood test results to come back on Friday, we got talking to a lady who was waiting to take her trial medication. Apparently, she's the sixth person in the world to be given her specific drug. She has terminal liver cancer and was given weeks to live. She has now passed the one year mark. In her case, the doctors did a DNA profile on her tumour cells and then it was compared to the 2500 mutations in the international cancer archive. The doctors then gave her treatment targeted at her particular mutation.

All this sounds really encouraging to me. It certainly looks like cancer treatment is moving in all kinds of new directions. It is not impossible that one day, chemotherapy and radiation will become the dinosaurs of cancer treatment. Let's all take heart from that.