Good News & Markers

We've got some good news and some good news...

Rob's CT came back clean! See! No sense in worrying, right??? (We shall see how well I am doing before the next scan in June.) The report was hilarious: "There is evidence for prior right lower lobe and right middle lobe resection." Really? What gave that away?

The other good news (or bad?): Rob does NOT have the EGFR marker in his tumor. By the way, if you are interested, the tumor was sent to the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. The actual wording was: "This tumor expresses EGFR weakly by immunohistochemistry and is FISH negative. No predictive mutations are identified. This tumor would appear to be unlikely to respond to EGFR blockade." EGFR blockade is the Tarceva (not having to take that is the good news, or if you are thinking the other way, not having to take that is the bad news).

If you are wondering what FISH is, it is not an underwater thingy that has gills and swims constantly. It is "fluroescence in situ hybridization" which means it is a process which looks at the internal structure of the cell.

So, we have made the decision to not have adjuvant chemotherapy or radiation. At this point, Rob will have CTs every three months, CTs with a PET scan every eight months. The PET scan picked up Rob's second tumor whereas the regular CT did not. However, PET scans often have false positives - no need for the added stress of thinking there is a tumor when there really isn't. Regular CTs have a finer resolution.

Are you thinking, "Well, if the regular CT has a finer resolution, why didn't it show the second tumor?" Yeah, that was my thinking as well. Apparently, the tumor was too small to see on a regular CT, but it showed up with 'hypermetabolic activity' (after Rob was pumped full of radioactive isotopes). I guess anything will show up if one has enough radioactive materials in their body.

Rob hopes to start work soon, if his boss and co-workers will have him back : ). (Call me if you don't, just in case, so we can let him down lightly...) hehehe.

He would love to get back into school as well - provided he can make it through an eight-hour work day and an additional seven hours of school/study time. Can you believe the schedule he was keeping? Yeah, neither can I. It has been fantastic having him home and around (even when he was taking many, many naps).

We are so grateful for the many, many prayers, thoughts, cards, meals, and calls on our behalf. We love you and feel so blessed to have so many wonderful people in our life!

We are not safe yet, but we are glad that the surgery part is over and that there is no chemo or radiation in the near future. YAY!!!!