Sarah --

What a difficult time this must be for you. Your sister is lucky to have you in her corner!

Based on what I've read here, the major centers can get patients in very quickly if the situation demands it. Have you or other family members tried calling Dana Farber and talking directly with the people there to find out how soon she could be seen? I expect that whoever calls will need specific details about her condition to emphasize its severity (i.e. size and location of tumor, how the cancer was staged, what has been done so far, etc.) -- and should be prepared to send off, ASAP, copies of test results, doctors' notes and even the biopsy slides themselves. (Labs will package them for a safe arrival via Express Mail/FedEx/etc.; someone near your sister might have to pick up the slides from the lab and send them off.)

At the very least, I'd suggest that she get her treatment plan reviewed by the specialists there -- or at M.D. Anderson in Houston, Sloan Kettering in NYC or Johns Hopkins' Kimmel Center in Baltimore, to name a few. There are people on these boards who have done that after getting treatment plans from their local doctors, and I am sure they will chime in on how that works.

Getting that consultation could reinforce that what she is already doing is what the top people in the field would recommend, or could open up other approaches that the local folks might not have considered.

All the best to you and your sister --

Leslie