Wednesday 14 June 2017

Not Just Pissing in the Atlantic

A busy day today! First I had rads, halfway through the bastard blasting now - huzzah!

Then Mum drove me over to Guildford (collecting Rob en route from his office) for a meeting with my trial oncologist. After a delay of an hour (boo!) we had a bloody positive meeting! Basically it looks like I might be eligible for a new hormone therapy wonder drug called Ribociclib which my oncologist (probably late 50s/early 60s) said, "when taken with letrozole, is one of the biggest drug breakthroughs in treating secondary breast cancer that I have seen in my entire career"! He said that whereas previous advances in treatment of secondaries have been a bit like pissing in the Atlantic, on early trials of this drug, 100% of people saw some sort of improvement. The median being 30 months of PFS compared to letrozole alone which is more like a year. 

However, to have this hormone drug I have to be post-menopausal. Tamoxifen that I'm currently on is for pre-menopausal women and as my cancer grew back on it, it obviously isn't working for me any more. This therefore means I will have to have an oophorectomy, aka I will have to have my ovaries whipped out straight after rads. But, if I can't have children anyway now, then I guess why not. 

So, a lot to take in, but as long as I pass the eligibility criteria (which the onc said he saw no reason why I shouldn't) and complete the eligibility trial period of scans and blood tests, then I'll be on the trial. Please keep your fingers crossed for me!

3 comments:

  1. Fingers and toes crossed. Sounds really promising Jo xxx Lisa xx

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  2. Keeping everything crossed x

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