Growing again

First let me say I have not read the written reports for the abdominal CT scan for myself yet. They (the hospital) put the correct CT scan pictures on the disk but the old written report from December. I will put up more info when I get a copy and read it over. His head CT scan was negative (take what you want from that..ha ha). According to the Oncologist, a couple of Dad's tumors have grown very slightly. From what I know of Dad's tumors and from what the doctor said I think it is the larger one in his liver and one of the larger lymph nodes in his chest. He said the growth is not substantial, but I don't know what his comparison is.

Dad will be starting Tarceva (There should be a link if you click the name). Tarceva is a "target drug" approved by the FDA in late 2004. It is similar to chemo in that it is intended to slow cancer growth, but because it targets a specific protein in the cancer cells it is not as toxic to the surrounding cells as "normal" chemo drugs. This protein, which helps cells to divide, is found at abnormally high levels on the surface of many types of cancer cells, including many cases of non-small cell lung cancer. It has also shown to be more effective in certain groups of patients including person's who have never smoked (my dad is one of those). So in plain english - it stops the cancer cells from dividing which slows tumor growth.

So hopefully this will fight it off for a while because the Avastin, as shown by the CT scan results, is no longer enough to keep it at bay.

That is all I can say for now without reading the reports for myself. Keep Dennis in your thoughts and prayers. Have a happy Easter.