kreed70

Nick C~ LOL!!!! Thanks!!! Kelly

Hi~ I would call the onc just to be on the safe side. Maybe a oxygen therapy is needed. Water is very important too!! Kelly

Just thinking of these two great gals. I hope that Carleen is doing well and I'm wondering about francesbean's Dad. Kelly

Will pray Don. Kelly

Crystal~ I am so sorry!!!! Kelly

I am so sorry!!! You are in my prayers! I will PM you. Kelly

Hi~ Is he on Zometa? It helps the bones. Do a search for it on here. Blessings, Kelly

Heather~ I have not heard of this but as I am researching, I keep my eyes open for something on it. Hopefully Dr. West can help. Are there any clinic trials at this time?? Kelly

Hi~ I knew that Alimta wasn't working and the results would be bad! I thought her upper and middle back area would show a lot of progression but... she has a lesion to the liver. Just one and it's small. She will start Taxotere week after next because... She has part of her airway blocked and right lung is partially collapsed. Onc. not sure what blockage is. It could be a cancerous growth, a mucus plug, scar tissue from radiation or a twisted airway. She will be getting a broncoscopy with the pulmonologist next week. She is off of oxycodone and oxcycontin and put on the Fentanyl patch (25 MCG)the lowest dose and 10/500 mg of Vocodin (double what she had before). Did any of you try the Fentanyl patch? Have a blocked airway? How were the treatments? What was your Taxotere experience? Did you have liver pain with your lesion(s)? THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING!!! Kelly

Sonia~ Hello from across the pond! I am very sorry about your dad. I am glad that you found us. This is a place of love, laughter, and hope! Also, the best, most current info on treatment, research, clinical trials, fundraisers, etc. Kelly

Cheryl~ I am so sorry! I'll pray that this all gets under control and you'll have more time. Take care of yourself. Kelly

I was wondering about you! Glad that chemo is over and praying that scans are good! Don't have any experience w/ that kind of doc but GO FOR IT!! My mom being sick has brought me a whole new lifestyle. Lost weight, going to the gym, etc. If I ever get cancer or something else very serious, I will do natural and traditional treatments! Kelly

Congrats Missy!!! She was planned from Above! Right, mom has to stay now! Kelly

Great!!! I love having a sister!! They'll be close in age, in grades and all of that other good stuff!! Congrats! Kelly

Hi~ My mom is running out of options!! She on 3rd/4th line and not sure what to do next. I'm expecting poor results from the latest scan because she is in so much pain and taking a lot of pain meds. (we're getting results Thursday 1/11/06) Her onc. says she can't do an HKI trial and she is also excluded from a Zactima one too as she has had one too many chemos. I'm thinking of having her go to Cancer Treatment Centers just to see what they say. Someone there said many people die because their body is so weak- not really from the cancer. That is why the nutritional aspect is so critical. I'm babbling. Any suggestions?? THANKS!!! Kelly

Kim~ I am very, very sorry the loss of your mom. You'll be in my prayers. Kelly

Kelly, Sorry things are crazy right now. I will pray extra for Bev and your family. Kelly

My mom hasn't had clots but I hope it all works out for her!! Kelly

My mom had a nail infection once while on Tarceva. I don't think she did anything to it and eventually it cleared up. Hope this helps! Kelly

Kasey~ Get well soon!! Kelly

Hi Kim~ Welcome to the best support- ever!! Great that you have a tenacious mother! You sound very on the ball as well! It's great that you don't have a lot going on right now and can help them BUT you must take time for yourself and continue to have a life separate from them and LC. Trust me on this one! Also, seeing a counselor and/or a caregiver support group can be very helpful! Keep us posted! Good thoughts and prayers with you! Kelly

Glad everything is ok!! I don't drink but I'll be the Designated Driver!!! Kelly

We are starting to deal with this very issue with my mom! My next move is a pain management doc. who deals w/cancer patients a lot if we don't get anything different from her onc. on 1/11/07. I will be writing down the meds mentioned in the responses and ask him about them. I'll keep you posted! Good Luck!!! Kelly

Sarah~ What a gorgeous tribute. She did good! I hope that when it is my mom's time and I think how to remember her, I can even do half as good as job as you did. Hang in there. Kelly

Scientists in Taiwan have developed a simple, five-gene test aimed at showing which lung cancer patients most need chemotherapy, as similar tests now do for people with breast cancer and lymphoma. The experimental test needs to be validated in larger groups of patients, so widespread use is perhaps a few years away. However, it's already winning praise for its possible use in everyday hospital settings instead of in limited situations by people with special genetics training. "This has the potential to be extremely helpful," said Dr. David Johnson, a lung cancer expert at Vanderbilt University and former president of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, the world's largest group of cancer specialists. "It's further proof that understanding genetic signatures may be helpful in how we treat patients. It may even allow us to avoid treating some patients," or to pinpoint those who may not respond to current drugs and would be better off trying an experimental therapy, he said. Johnson had no role in the research, which was reported in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine. The Taiwan test is much simpler than a different one involving dozens of genes described by Duke University researchers in the same medical journal last August. Lung cancer is the world's top cancer killer. About 175,000 new cases and 162,000 deaths from it occur in the United States each year. Most tumors are diagnosed after they have already spread beyond the lung. For the 20 percent or so of patients whose cancers are found in an early stage, chemotherapy after surgery to remove the tumor can improve survival. However, some of these early-stage patients have such a low risk of recurrence that chemo gives them only slightly better odds. Others turn out to have very aggressive tumors that prove fatal even though they are very small when detected. Right now, there's no good way to tell these groups of patients apart — size alone doesn't do it. "The staging system pretty much needs to be trashed. It's imprecise, and it tells us nothing close to what the genomic, genetic material tells us" in terms of risk of recurrence and death, said Dr. Anil Potti, a scientist working on Duke's gene signature test. The test devised by Hsuan-Yu Chen and colleagues at Taiwan University aims to give a better way to sort low- and high-risk patients. The scientists analyzed 125 patients' tumor samples from patients with all stages of lung cancer and found 16 genes that seemed to raise or lower the odds of recurrence or death. Further analysis narrowed this down to five genes that formed a signature of risk. They tested this signature on half of the samples and found a strong correlation to how well the patients actually fared. Median survival was 40 months for the lowest-risk group and 20 months for the highest-risk according to the strength of activity of the five genes. The median time until relapse also was significantly longer — 29 months versus 13 months — for the lowest-risk group. Results were validated in another set of 60 patients. Doctors also tested the genes' prediction powers with information on 86 tumors that University of Michigan researchers used to try to develop their own gene profiling test. The Michigan researchers posted their information on the Internet, allowing the Taiwan scientists to test results in a largely Caucasian population in addition to their Asian one. Researchers now must test more patients, assign chemotherapy based on the resulting risk scores, and track survival, Dr. Roy Herbst of the University of Texas' M.D. Anderson Cancer Center writes in an editorial accompanying the study in the medical journal. "In breast cancer now, patients are being selected for chemotherapy based on studies like this," he noted. "We have to move to the next step" with lung cancer, he said. The study was paid for by the National Science Council of the Republic of China and Advpharma, a Taiwan company, and one of the study authors is an employee. ___ On the Net: New England Journal: http://www.nejm.org