Mets Days 768 - Little progress on a cure

Today I met with my GW oncologist, Dr. Jeanny Aragon-Ching. I go in every couple of months for lab work, have my port flushed, and see what's new in the world of metastatic bladder cancer. I asked her if there was any recent news or developments, and in particular whether there were any clinical trials that might be applicable to me. I also asked about a recent MD Anderson study (news article here) that reported that some bladder cancer mutations resembled breast cancer mutations.

Dr. Aragon-Ching was aware of the MD Anderson paper, and said that even more recent papers had dampened any short-term hope that metastatic bladder cancer might be as amenable to treatment as some breast cancers have been. She said that the ability to identify the sub-type of bladder cancer was still preliminary, and there were no sufficiently powered studies as of yet showing that particular sub-types of bladder cancer responded better or worse than other sub-types. She added that there was still so much research to do, and not enough funding to do it.

We also spoke about clinical trials. She said that the most promising research was with regard to immunotherapy and inhibitors called PD-1 and PD-L1. The current clinical trials require the patients to have measurable metastases larger than 1.5 cm in size -- something I don't have. She said that she hoped that I would not get to the point of being eligible for such a trial, because such a metastasis would mean that my cancer is growing and spreading. I agreed that it was far better for my mets to be stable and not spread from my lymphatic system into my organs.

We also talked about my slow walk back to pre-ddMVAC chemo baseline. She suggested that I slowly ramp up some type of an exercise regimen to get back some of the stamina that was lost during last fall's chemo and recovery. I hope to do more racquet sports such as tennis or racquetball with my kids.

For now, I remain on the watchful waiting cycle. My next scan is in mid-July at NIH. Until then, the message remains to be grateful for each day, sharing love and laughter with family and friends.