Mets Day 479 - Scan tomorrow

Tomorrow I have another scan at Fox Chase Cancer Center. In advance of my scan and conference with Dr. Plimack, I've been reading up on the latest research regarding bladder cancer.  One medical journal article that I reviewed had the catchy title, "Pancreatic secretory trypsin inhibitor causes autocrine-mediated migration and invasion in bladder cancer and phosphorylates in EGF receptor, Akt2 and Akt3, and ERK1 and ERK2".  A link to the abstract is at here.  When I first saw a news article about this research, I hoped that it might be good news on whether my plasma could be measured for the PTSI marker. Being able to quantify that might give me some indication of the degree of ongoing increased risk that I have for the formation of solid (and inevitably fatal) secondary tumors.  Bur after reading the article (and I don't claim to have understood much of it), I don't think that it will help me at all.  The possible link between the PTSI markers and BC mets is not well-established, and there is no therapeutic treatment available even if there was a demostrable cause and effect. I'll still ask Dr. Plimack about it, but this research doesn't change the fact that there is no proven treatment for metastatic BC.