Judy Poore

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   I went in about a month ago for a check up and my doctor wanted a scan of my abdomen do to family history of aneurysms.    During that scan they found spots on my liver.  They did a biopsy and it came back as cancer.  I went to Oncology Associates at Methodist.  We met with Dr Tim Dorius and felt he was one doctor for me.   He will work with Dr. Popa.  He came from UNMC and still consults with those docs as well as the Methodist oncologists.  Treatment plan will be developed with a team of doctors that include a radiologist, oncologist, pathologist, and pulmonary.  He was supportive of getting a second opinion. 

 

The cancer is stage 4, they believe it started in my lung and has spread to my lymph nodes and liver.  Since it is in my liver that puts it at stage 4.  Survival rates are average of one year.  However, this is for people who have begun to experience symptoms related to the liver.  Since I don’t have any symptoms the prognosis is 1-2 years and is completely dependent upon my response to treatment.  My type of cancer is small cell neuroendocrine carcinoma.  My doctor has a lot of experience in treating this type of aggressive cancer. 

 

Treatment will be chemotherapy.  The two medications that will be used will be Carboplatin and Etoposide (and possibly Irinotecan if one of the others are unavailable).  The treatments will be 4-6 total treatments with 3 weeks between each.  They will assess me after the first 4 treatments and if I am well enough they will proceed with the other two treatments.  I am trying to be accepted into a clinical trial which would include amino therapy.  I would receive this every three weeks as well.  Surgery is not an option for treatment at this time.

 

I have labs and a MRI on 8/29 at 9:15am at Healthwest 156th and Dodge .  They are completing an MRI because this type of cancer can often progress to the brain.  I then will have a PET scan on 8/30 at 10:15am at Methodist, to assess all of the locations of the cancer and will see the oncologist that day at 2:15 p.m. to go over all of the results.   My port will be inserted on 9/7 at 9 am at Methodist.