From Laura

Update on Kent:

You didn't hear from us during radiation because there was nothing much to report. Kent handled the treatment like a pro with only a few days of pain and nausea. We added a new "cancer family" to our hearts during our daily visits to Multicare Radiation Oncology. Dr. Guss and his team treated us with the utmost professionalism, compassion, and respect.

Kent's last radiation treatment was May 17th.

Yesterday, (June 13th) Kent had a PET scan to check for progress. We met with Dr. Gourley this morning to find out the results.

Unfortunately, it wasn't the news we were hoping for. In Dr. Gourley's words, the "post-treatment PET shows activity in the abdomen at the previous tumor site." There is "improvement in the PET activity, but still a Deauville score of 4." In laymen's terms, the tumor has shrunk, but it is still active. 

At this point, we don't know if "the activity" is still residual effects from the radiation, or if it's active cancer.

Because Kent's last biopsy resulted in an emergency procedure (to stop internal bleeding) and a hospital stay, Dr. Gourley is hesitant to jump right to that as an option.

For now, his recommendation is to wait another 8 weeks, repeat the PET scan, and if there's still activity, biopsy the site, and develop a plan from there. Depending on what the biopsy shows, the next form of treatment will be either STEM-cell therapy or CART-T cell therapy, which will most likely be done in Seattle.

We have a meeting on Thursday with Dr. Guss and we will go over all of this with him as well. If he has anything new to add to the treatment plan, we'll give you another update.

We wish the news was... It's in remission and life can go back to "normal", but with cancer, as we've discovered, there's no such thing as normal! 

This is your friendly reminder to live big... do all the things... and love all the people, each and every day!