Update

John has had 12 infusions of the trial drug and we met the oncologist for "the" review today. Unfortunately, while the lesions in the lungs have not grown much, there is a lymph node which has increased rather alarmingly in size in the last two months. The doctor concluded that the trial drug wasn't working and demitted John. Instead, he will now be getting chemo -- taxol and carboplatin -- to start in two weeks' time. This is, of course, not good news but being in a clinical trial is always a crap shoot. We asked the doctor but there are no other drug trials for head and neck patients at this point.

John has taken it quite well and I am glad about that. He has been having discussions with his therapist about the situation and I think the sessions have helped him understand what he is facing and how he can best deal with it.

If there are members of the forum out there who may be considering immunotherapy, please do not lose hope. There are patients here at our hospital who have had more infusions than John and who have had better outcomes. It is like the initial treatment of radiation and chemo -- it all depends on the individual.