Mary, yes, it's the same trial. We have just been told that in the second part of the study, which is what John is in, they are asking about 410 people to participate, with the possibility of more people being added. In the first part of the study, about 50 people were asked to participate. I believe the numbers are worldwide.

Gloria-
Thank you. I am happy to hear this information, particularly give the good results of the other patient you met. I hope all continues to go well, and relatively side-effect-free for your husband.

Mary

Update

John had his first review today after four doses. The CT scans two weeks ago show 16% increase in tumour size! which, the doctor assured us, is very little (look at it like this: 16% increase of 1.5 cm). Besides, immunotherapy drugs work very slowly so John will continue with the treatment and there will be another review in two months. The MO, who is in charge of all phase 1 trials at the cancer centre, also mentioned that there are other drugs that John could try if this one does not work well enough. So, all things considered, I would consider it good news.

Yeah - to any kind of triumph... keep on keeping on. I know it's hard. It's kind of like holding your breath indefinitely. Hoping that the next CT offers good news. hugs.

Hi Gloria,

I just discovered this thread (I've spent most of my time in the intro section) and am delighted to hear the good news you've experienced! I hope it continues to be good and even improve!

My distant mets have all been in my liver, and that's a relatively easy organ to treat; in my case, most recently with SIRIspheres, tiny plastic beads, ~ 1/3 the thickness of a human hair, each enclosing a tiny hunk of Yttrium-90, a beta-particle emitter. There has been enormous success with this in Liver Cancer patients and it seems to work equally well on Oropharyngeal mets in the liver.

Yesterday, I had my 14th and final radiation session on a lymph node between the liver and the stomach that we knew about, but left alone while we did the SIRIsphere routine. In that time, it grew from .2 to 4 cm, but I'm confident that the radiation will have zapped it. I really won't know until May 12th when I get a CT with contrast to check. But I'm pretty sure I'll be clean then.

HOWEVER, clean is a temporary word in my world, I know that just like "Whack-a-Mole," it's going to raise its lovely head again; so it's great to learn that new treatment modalities are on hand should it show in the lungs or elsewhere that radiation cannot be used to simply Zap it away.

Best of luck to you and John,

Bart

Yeah on completion Bart you're a trooper man! Hugs,

Hi Bart, congratulations on completing the SIRI spheres treatment. It is good to know about different kinds of treatment available for metastasis. We count ourselves lucky that we are at a hospital where they have an entire department for clinical trials. Good luck to you on your next round of treatment.

Hi Gloria, Thank you for the update and hooray for good news! Bart, it was good to hear from you too; you made me laugh in my saddest hours last year with your posts--and your optimism and whack-a-mole analogy are right on. I communicate with two women by email whose dad/husband are dealing with mets. Between them, gloria, bart, stily, zenda I have heard so many different treatment approaches to what I am sure are similar to wildly differing pathologies. Mets seems almost to be its own little subset of this recurrence forum. Not sure where I am going with this, except if I were a researcher, I would be want to do something with all this valuable data. As it is, I am grateful to glean every bit I can to help me prepare questions for doctors. And of course I am happy to share our experience. I will know more in a week.

Best to all, and thanks for being here,
Mary

Thanks for the kind words, Mary, Cheryl and Gloria!

It's great to be here, and that's even before considering any alternatives!

You all are great people, and it's a real lift to the spirit to be among you!

Thank you all!

Bart

Hi Gloria,
I am happy to hear that progression after a short time is minimal. I believe that immunotherapy would take some time and progress wouldnt be seen overnight. I think that John or I or others with distant mets didnt get this way overnight, so it would be logical that reversing it by way of the immune system would take time also. I guess my case presents as unusual. (The MO's description).I had a pet in Jan. and a follow up Ct on Feb. 28th. Some of the lymph nodes were actually smaller. I had cardiac bypass surgery in December, about 2 weeks prior to Jan. petscan. Sooooooo maybe? Last nights tumor board suggests a biopsy of the nodes and see where that goes. The problem with that is that my throat opening is only 4-5cm wide while the camera is 6cm. It now appears that we are going to do a new pet late next week or early the next and see where that goes. The frontline therapy right now is trying to find a Dna match in which to start targeted therapy. I am still looking for a clinical trial in the SW U.S. if you hear of anything. good luck to all club members