It's been a stressful few weeks trying to find the latest medical miracle for thymic carcinoma, or at least a medical solution that has a shot of keeping me alive a little bit longer. After many Google searches and several phone calls for alternatives, it was our meeting with Dr. G at Dana Farber (DF) which proved to give us the best shot at a feasible treatment.
Dr. G works in both the thoracic clinic (chemo/FDA approved treatments) and with clinical trials for thoracic patients. She was able to offer a couple clinical trials that we could consider and also a chemotherapy option that I have not yet tried. The chemotherapy, Alimta, is not well known; but, has had positive results in patients with thymomas (similar, yet different from thymic carcinoma).
After much reading, research and discussion with John, doctors, and nurses we faced the fact that even though it would take up a great deal more time and money, we had to try our luck with one of the clinical trials. The reason being is that clinical trials that I'm eligible for don't come around too often, and can't be guaranteed to come around again; whereas the chemotherapy option will always be in our back pocket. Now that we narrowed it down to a clinical trial we had to choose which trial would be best.
The clinical trial that we settled on is only administered at Dana Farber and is a Phase I Trial of ABT-888 and SCH727965 (without carboplatin). This trial consists of ABT-888, an oral dose, which is taken twice per day, every day, and SCH727965, an IV dose that will be administered once every other week. Appointments range from one to three times per week, anywhere from an hour up to twelve hours. The list of side effects for these drugs is two pages long, and the nurses say that I can expect to feel pretty lousy, especially after the IV dose. CT-scans are taken every two months, and three skin biopsies are taken (size of a pencil eraser chunk will be taken out of my thigh(3 times)) in the beginning months of the trial.
As with the last clinical trial there is a pre-screening process to confirm my eligibility. My pre-screening will be Thursday, May 23rd and consist of a doctor visit, labs, ekg, and a baseline ct-scan. Assuming I am eligible, my first treatment day will be, just the oral dose, on May 30th, the IV dose will be added June 4th.
For the past seven years (three years before the cancer diagnosis) Beth Israel has been my hospital, we know the locations of everything, the doctors, nurses, radiology techs, surgeons, parking attendants, dunkins kiosk staff, etc. It is a little nerve wracking to leave my comfort zone and venture into a new hospital; but, DF and BI are very well connected, and I can still go to BI for anything non-trial related. I think that my loyalty will always lay with my friends at BI, but I am hopeful and optimistic that DF will provide me with not only alternative, successful treatments, but the same family atmosphere that we have developed at BI.
UPCOMING APPTS:
Thr. 5/23: Pre-Screening
Thr. 5/30: C1D1
Fri: 5/31: C1D2
Tue: 6/4: C1D4
Wed: 6/5: C1D5
Thr. 6/6: C1D6
