Dominic

Hi, I would caution against expecting "incredible results" as you mentioned. This is merely a diagnostic test, not a treatment. Having said that, I think it makes so much sense to try it. There's no downside except the financial cost. My mom tried it and it indicated she'd be most sensitive to two particular combinations. She's on her second cycle of cisplatin+gemzar now. While it's too early to know how well it is working, based on an Xray after the first cycle the oncologist said it's looking "a bit better". Mom's side effects of cough and short breath (probably caused by pleural effusion) have decreased noticeably. Importantly, the assay indicated what Mom would probably NOT be sensitive to. One of the indicated drugs was carboplatin. This is a very important point, because there's a good chance that carboplatin+gemzar would've normally been prescribed as the first line treatment. Personally, I feel that this is the big value of using an assay to try to predict which drugs to use. Hang in there and Best of luck. DP

Dear Cary, Hebbie and all, Thanks for sharing. I hope more people share their information here. Cary, thanks so much for the veyr valuable links. Great to have you here to guide us. Here is the website of what I've heard is one of the leading practitioners, and probably the entity "in California" that was mentioned by Hebbie in http://www.buy2k.net/lungcancersurvivor ... php?t=4428 Please check it out if you want TONS of information http://weisenthal.org/ I'm going to keep digging on this. FYI, we recently had samples from my mom's pleural effusion sent to Dr Wiesenthal for analysis. Waiting for the results. Peace, Dominic

... then why isn't it a widespread practice? It seems to make perfect sense to test someone's reactions to various chemo drugs and combinations of drugs BEFORE subjecting him/her to those drugs using trial-and-error. There also seem to be some good anecdotes about how assay-guided chemo treatment performs better than traditional trial and error. Is it true that the primary reason why this is not widely done is that drug companies are against it? Or is it due to a lack of evidence that it really works? If anyone knows anything about this topic, please share! Seems like such testing could help a LOT of people in this community. Dominic

Adam, Hang in there! Sounds like your dad has already beat the original "prognosis" (aka wild guesstimate), so that bodes well for the next round of treatments. I'm feeling tragically appalled and frustrated by the way the Canadian health"care" system works. Feels like so much precious time is being wasted on logistics and W-A-I-T-I-N-G ... very disappointed. Hope things are better in London that they are in Toronto. Send me a PM if you would like to share about that. Sincerely, Dominic

Fay, Sending you love and best wishes from Toronto. Dominic

Hi all, I've noticed that severe coughing is not mentioned very often in these posts. Coughing is not as serious as other symptoms, but when it gets severe it sure takes a lot of the quality out of life. My mom had recently been dx'd with inoperable NSCLC. Her symptoms are a severe dry cough and shortness of breath. The fluid in her lung was drained last week to help with the shortness of breath (it did, to a great extent). But the cough persists, and has increased in severity in the past 3-4 days. I'm typing away at my PC, but I can hear her coughing as she tries to sleep. Each cough hurts my soul. Questions to which I'd be grateful for insight ... 1. Any ideas about lesssening the coughing? 2. Would pleurodesis work? 3. Does chemo help with such symptoms? I'm just looking for ways to make her time better. Thanks, Dominic

Hang in there, you're not alone at all. I'm in a very similar situation. My mom has just been diagnosed with inoperable NSCLC. It's been the most intense few weeks of my life. I'm from Canada and I've been hearing that the Canadian health care system is as slow as the British system. I hope that's not the case, but I can easily understand if you're feeling a lot of frustration. Get a second opinion, for sure. The "experts" are just humans; they're experts just like economists and fund managers are experts; everyone makes mistakes and errors in judgement. Let's continue to share our experiences here, going forward. You're not alone! Dominic