Dear Martha:
That was the sweetest letter. You did put your finger on the point that
we don't have total "faith" in any one person. Maybe I know too much and not
quite enough. I keep hoping to discover a miracle cure and there just isn't
one. All the docs keep saying that Sloan Kettering is the greatest, the
best, etc. and that may be so for the staff but my experience and that of
other patients doesn't indicate that.
Have decided for the moment not to check further for the primary
although I believe it's there. It only matters in the sense that if we enter
a clinical trial, we need to know what the cancer is and that certain cancers
respond to certain agents so it would be better to know. Both our family
doctor and the oncologist say an MRI won't show anything the Cat Scan doesn't
show and a PET Scan would just light up Tom's chest like a slot machine..
Also, the family doctor said that cancers behind the nose are never
adenocarcinomas--always squamous cell so he was dubious that was the origin.
Maybe the bleeds came from too many thinners in the chemo and the Chinese
herbs--I guess we better stick to one doctor.
I appreciate your offer to teach me to drive ( and someday I'd like to
learn but I have my hands full now). I've given up on the Stony Brook idea.I
think it would be easier to go to Boston! And if we affiliated with the
StonyBrook place, we'd fall between the cracks in case of problems. We
wouldn't have a doctor here and certainly couldn't go out there for every
little thing. Also we might get the placebo (excuses, excuses). I pray
that the MMPs weren't the one thing that would save Tom and I passed it up.
But my good AIDS oncologist friend at Cornell says that if the MMPs were so
"promising" they'd drop the placebo phase and offer it to everyone in the
trial.
I guess we'll rely on the regular chemo and Chinese herbs for now.
They'll be starting angiostatin and endostatin trials at Anderson and Dana
Farber and in Wisconsin in the fall but they'll be Phase I which basically
tests toxicity.
By the way, I'm in a rage about a newscast on Channel 4 tonight. My
father called me to watch about a breakthrough in treating lung cancer.
Turns out to be giving combo-chemo before surgery and the guy has survived
for 10 years. Is that a breakthrough? But they begin the story by saying
gravely "Lung cancer kills more people than any other cancer and any other
disease. Only 10% are alive in 5 years. Tom started shaking and went into
the bedroom and put his head in his hands. He is so down and has no appetite.
My sister's surgery is this Friday. I will have my hands full for
awhile, but let me know when you'll be in the city.
What's your experience with all this by the way.
Thanks for the kind note. Bess
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