Monday, February 19, 2001
Patient-Physician Communication: An Emerging PartnershipDefining the Emetogenicity of Cancer Chemotherapy Regimens: Relevance to Clinical Practice
posted by Karen Weber Monday, February 19, 2001
Tuesday, February 20, 2001
Navigating Your Way Through a Breast Cancer DiagnosisI am back from my PET scan. The biggest problem was getting into a vein. They blew the first two, but got into the third one. They gave me the radioactively tagged sugar, then I laid in a bed for about 30 minutes. Then they had me empty my bladder and we did the scan. They only took pictures from the ears to the groin; it took about 50 minutes. No loud noises like an MRI. It was just really cold in the room. I had one blanket on, and they offered to cover me completely in blankets, but with me it's always better to let me be a bit cold than to risk starting a hot flash. I should have results sometime between Thursday and Tuesday.
posted by Karen Weber Tuesday, February 20, 2001
Wednesday, February 21, 2001
Age and comorbidities affect prognosis and treatment options in breast cancerAmerican Cancer Society and Pampered Chef Partner to Help Whip Cancer
Smoking Ups Risk for Less Favorable Breast Cancer
posted by Karen Weber Wednesday, February 21, 2001
Thursday, February 22, 2001
I finally have the date for my MUGA scan. I will have it a week from tomorrow on March 2. I cannot believe that February is almost gone! Wow! Today I had my first post-chemo hair cut. I had been very excited about this, but this week, my hair has looked so cute and curly, I was almost wanting to cancel it. My hair actually looks exactly like I've always wished it would look - short and curly all over. My stylist is so wonderful. She just trimmed up around the ears and checked length in other areas and let it be. I'll go back in 6 weeks for a real hair cut. She didn't charge me for this one, making it the 3rd cut she's done for me without charge since my diagnosis.Multiple focal nodular hyperplasia and steatosis: Atypical imaging characteristics - this is the benign lesion we hope they are seeing in my liver. It's either this or a met.
World's Largest Early Breast Cancer Study to Deliver Results Later This Year - compares Arimidex alone, tamoxifen alone, and the two drugs in combination.
Breast Cancer Innovation Cited
posted by Karen Weber Thursday, February 22, 2001
Friday, February 23, 2001
Swimming Helps Breast Cancer Survivors - but we knew that!Breast Cancer - a tutorial for pathologists, but eminently readable by laypersons.
Medical Oncology: A Comprehensive Review - Metastatic Breast Cancer
This is the journal entry I hoped I would never have to write. It now appears nearly certain that I have a metastasis in the liver. My oncologist called early this afternoon to say that the results of the PET scan are "worrisome." There is a hot spot (an area where the cells took up a large amount of the radioactive sugar) in the same area where we saw the anatomical lesion on the CT and MRI. At this point, it's a fairly safe assumption this is a malignancy. The question is whether it is a metastasis or a new primary liver cancer. Most likely a met, but they'll biopsy to be sure and to get some information on the tumor characteristics. The biopsy will be Monday, March 5 in the am. I have told my oncologist that I want to be as aggressive as possible in going after this. Resection is rarely used in breast mets to the liver, but there are some studies published by researchers at Duke and at Sloan Kettering showing good results. My oncologist is wary, but it's not his life. We know that chemo rarely if ever puts you back into remission once you have mets to the liver and survival statistics are grim. So I'm not looking for a conservative approach since we know it doesn't do much for you. We obviously have more big decisions to make in the coming weeks.
posted by Karen Weber Friday, February 23, 2001
Saturday, February 24, 2001
Evaluation of Benign vs Malignant Hepatic Lesions With Positron Emission TomographyManagement Principles for Metastatic Breast Cancer - a roundtable from the Journal of the Moffitt Cancer Center
posted by Karen Weber Saturday, February 24, 2001