~Too Many Brain Mets To Count~Mighty Oak's Saga Continues...

[Emmay]

Dear Marie,

In April '08 my sister's MRI looked very bad -- brain mets appeared to be suddenly growing very quickly and spreading in new areas, and she'd already had 2 brain surgeries, Whole Brain Radiation, many Cyberknife treatments, chemos etc etc (see history of her treatment below). Her neuro-oncologist and her breast cancer oncologist did their best to come up with something new that might work. They put her on CPT-11 (Irinotican) plus Avastin, and her response under that therapy was remarkable -- ~90% of met activity in brain cleared after a month, then all clear for a full year.

[Unfortunately she developed systemic mets in April '09 which forced a change in her treatment (she is currently on Herceptin every week and Carboplatin (3 weeks on, 1 wk off) and recovering from a hairline fracture in her hip]...

There's some chance DFCI might not consider CPT-11 + Avastin an acceptable therapy, but I know you and your dear Ed are praying for some other option right now, and that combo worked remarkably well for my sister for a full year. Good luck tomorrow and God bless you both -- you are in all of our prayers.

Emmay