Hellion, John had to have two lung biopsies when he entered the drug trial. It was a condition for being accepted. As he had one lesion in the pleura, it was the one that the doctors used. All the other lesions were too deep.

As the doctor explained it to us, "It is like pricking a balloon with a sharp needle and then withdrawing the needle without the balloon collapsing or losing too much of the air inside it." John was given local anaesthesia and not put under.

I know the mantra is, "It is not cancer until the biopsy says so." However, unlike biopsies in other parts of the body, lung biopsies are far more tricky and risky.

When John was initially diagnosed, we were told that the first place the cancer would spread to, if it was going to spread, would be the lungs. When the metastases were found, his CT scan report said that the lesion "had the typical seed-like appearance." That was when the doctors knew it was cancer.

By the way, when John got taxol and carboplatin recently, he responded much better than when he had cisplatin. So, don't let that bother you too much. Do remember, though, even with trial drugs, you will get side effects, many of which are like chemo side effects.