Saturday, March 29, 2008
Six Month Checkup
Once again, Mom did very well on her 6 month checkup. Her CT was clean and her CA 19-9 came in at a normal 32. So we are once again very happy and relieved. She begins her round of the Hopkins vaccine on Monday. Mom and Dad are planning a big trip to Korea in May so hopefully she will feel well enough to go. Her recent problems include continued problems eating and more recently some pretty severe back pain. It's unclear what is causing the back pain but her GP thinks it is musculo-skeletal. She did some physical therapy but it doesn't appear to be helping too much.
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Eugene, thanks for making this very inspiring journal available. It is very instructive for how to go about getting the best treatment for someone suffering from this disease. My dad is affected. By the way, in Europe we think that Prof. Buechler from Heidelberg, Germany, is the best surgeon in the world but I think he knows Dr. Cameron and Dr. Traverso very well. In the States you are fortunate to get VMP (I guess that stands for Virginia Mason Protocol which is the treatment Dr. Picozzi administers). There is no VMP in Europe, yet. There is a big Phase III clinical trial with VMP going on in Heidelberg called CapRI. It involves 110 patients and first results are expected by the end of 2008. Hopefully the results will be good so many more people can profit from Dr. Picozzi’s regimen. In Heidelberg they perform about 500 Whipple procedures pa and they are able to do a big randomized trial on VMP. Please, if you could, how many cycles of VMP did your mother get before getting three rounds of Gemcitabine at John Hopkins? You are talking about week one, week two, and phase one but is this equivalent to rounds of treatment? All the best to your mother.
The VMP was extremely grueling and caused some serious side effects (stomach bleeding). However, perhaps it has been responsible for keeping my mother in remission. I look forward to the CapRI results. I think the VMP is split into two phases. The grueling first phase is 6 weeks of: constant 5FU, weekly cisplatin, alpha inteferon 3x a week, daily radiation. The less grueling second phase often varies but is generally gemcitabine possibly combined with taxotere. This second phase usually lasts about three months I believe. I hope your father does well with his treatment - it's such a tough disease.
If you go to OncologySTAT.com and register you can get the latest publication on CapRI from October 2007. It’s a professional site but it’s ad supported. You can register as a caregiver.
Thanks for your inspiring journal. My husband is due for his 1 year restaging with Dr. Picozzi. He did the VMP chemoradiation and then 3 cycles of Gemzar and Taxotere. His hair and nails did fall out eventually but are coming back now (@ 3 months. We have 2 daughters 11 and 14. My husband is 49. Reading your story has inspired me as it sounds much like ours. It helps me see a future. Drs Picozzi and Traverso are our angels. Hope your mother is doing well. Thanks again.
I hope for the best for you and your family. I know it must be very hard for all of you. It's great that he's gotten through this most difficult year though. All the best.
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