Hello all! I hope everyone is doing well. These are especially difficult times in our country right now, and adding cancer into the mix makes everything extremely difficult. I wanted to update you all on Mike’s health with the hope that this knowledge will help others in a similar situation. Please read my profile for the most recent updates (too many to type out).
Mike’s cancer has progressed in spite of platinum based chemo tx and immunotherapy. We were extremely fortunate to set up a video coference consultative appt with Dr. Beltran out of Dana Farber. Her research in this field is highly regarded. Unfortunately, as you are aware, tx for this subset of cancer is not clearly defined. Mike’s oncologist team here (Cleveland, OH) is working with Dr. Beltran and following her guidelines. He is running out of tx options but ultimately the goal is to slow the spread so that he can start a parp inhibitor (Lynparza) targeting his BRCA2 defect. So he will begin 4 cycles of combo chemo cabazitaxel+carboplatinum (taxane for the pc fellas and platinum for the neuroendocrine fellas). It would be to toxic for him to combine the chemo with the lynparza at the same time. Mike is on the radar for clinical trials here in our area through the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals as well as Dana Farber. In conversation with Dr. Beltran, I asked about potential future therapy for this subset of PC, she mentioned her research targeting DLL3 and the possibility of epigentic therapy. I am attaching some info on that here. Mike has not been well for the past 2 months and I am uncertain how much more he can tolerate. A lot to consider as we fight on, but for now, I wish you all good health.
For some strange reason I have a good feeling that the cabazitaxel is going to work for him where the etoposide didn't. I personally find treatment is a lot more tolerable when it's working, and hopefully Mike will too. This paragraph is completely non-scientific, of course.
Thanks for posting all the details. I may have to look up Dr. Beltran after I've recovered from my current chemo. Because of the lack of effective and standard treatments, I'm becoming interested in other opinions whereas I was just happy to have undetectable PSA in 2019.
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