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Old 04-29-2009, 11:31 AM   #1
StephN
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Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Misty woods of WA State
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Wink News from Denver Cancer Researchers' conference >>>

Your HER2 group had a presence at this massive (over 15,000 attendees) annual meeting. We had a booth in the section of the exhibit area for non-profit organizations. We had good traffic flow with a corner location in a main traffic flow aisle. Hence it seems there was never more than a few moments when we were without someone stopping to see what we were all about.

Many of the researchers were easily engaged in conversation about their research and what they were presenting at this meeting. Sometimes there was a bit of a language barrier as the conference is international, and there are many foreigners working at univerisities and institutes in this country.

This conference covers ALL types of cancers, but often the work at the molecular level could cross over from one cancer to another. Also most of the presentations are using mouse models or cell lines and not to the point of human subjects.

There are a number of abstracts I would like to post, but online access to them will not be available for another week or so. Most have not yet been published elsewhere, so we have to wait for the AACR website to have them.

For me, the biggest surprise was how much new research is taking place in prevention and and the possible use of non-chemo agents in treatment. The discovery of ways to break down our DNA and the gene sequencing is proliferating a huge amount of work to find out where the mutations are and how they occur.

Stay tuned - more to come.

(Off to get my head examined - I mean have a routine brain MRI.)
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"When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest." H.D. Thoreau
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MY STORY SO FAR ~~~~
Found suspicious lump 9/2000
Lumpectomy, then node dissection and port placement
Stage IIB, 8 pos nodes of 18, Grade 3, ER & PR -
Adriamycin 12 weekly, taxotere 4 rounds
36 rads - very little burning
3 mos after rads liver full of tumors, Stage IV Jan 2002, one spot on sternum
Weekly Taxol, Navelbine, Herceptin for 27 rounds to NED!
2003 & 2004 no active disease - 3 weekly Herceptin + Zometa
Jan 2005 two mets to brain - Gamma Knife on Jan 18
All clear until treated cerebellum spot showing activity on Jan 2006 brain MRI & brain PET
Brain surgery on Feb 9, 2006 - no cancer, 100% radiation necrosis - tumor was still dying
Continue as NED while on Herceptin & quarterly Zometa
Fall-2006 - off Zometa - watching one small brain spot (scar?)
2007 - spot/scar in brain stable - finished anticoagulation therapy for clot along my port-a-catheter - 3 angioplasties to unblock vena cava
2008 - Brain and body still NED! Port removed and scans in Dec.
Dec 2008 - stop Herceptin - Vaccine Trial at U of W begun in Oct. of 2011
STILL NED everywhere in Feb 2014 - on wing & prayer
7/14 - Started twice yearly Zometa for my bones
Jan. 2015 checkup still shows NED
2015 Neuropathy in feet - otherwise all OK - still NED.
Same news for 2016 and all of 2017.
Nov of 2017 - had small skin cancer removed from my face. Will have Zometa end of Jan. 2018.
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