[Sherryg683]

Joy, why would you not be a candidate for cyberknife. I'm not totally familiar with it but we have the cyberknife in New Orleans and it advertises on their website that it can be used on the liver. I am also curious as to what determines whether they will or will not use it. As far as vaccines, I was accepted into a vaccine at U of W trial as a stage IV right after I finished treatment 2-1/2 years ago.. If I am remembering right, I had to be in remission or no measurable disease like Steph said and I had to fit into a time frame since my last chemo (herceptin not included). I don't remember the exact time but I am thinking 9 months. I remember talking to the woman at U of W on the phone and she said that I qualified by 1 month, a month later and I wouldn't have. I had all the paper work but then decided against doing it. Washington is so far for me to get to and I was doing well and was just nervous about it. As far as your pain question, my oncologist has told me that he has had many women tell them that they knew that there tumors were shrinking because they could feel pain in that area. He didn't say this was true or not, just what they had said. I had and still have this awful burning, stabbing pain in my gallbladder area since chemo and have had every test and scan to check it out and there is nothing, so I don't know if pain is an indicator. I just remember my brother before he passed from melanoma, his whole liver was full of cancer and he said he never felt much pain there at all, so I think the pain may be an individual thing. I do hope you find some answers and if you do please share them with us. You are such a beautiful, shinning light and we need you around here with us for a long, long time..sherryg683