I'm having a great response to folfiri. The neuroendocrine tumors in my liver are smaller and fewer in number. Lungs are mostly clear now, with one new spot that neither me nor my oncologist are worried about unless it gets larger in my next scan. All my skeletal metastases are stable. Prostate looks normal. Hydronephrosis is improving, which probably means any residual cancer in my bladder is shrinking. Good news all around. But...
... when I asked how much more chemo was planned, I found out I'll be on it indefinitely as stopping it would probably cause my cancer to grow right back. If I can get a complete response in my liver, my MO would be open to stopping chemo then. Otherwise, he's only comfortable giving me a week or two off here and there, and neither one of us thinks there's much benefit in time off during February.
BTW, we briefly talked about the genetics of my cancer, and we both agree that it's ignoring any external signals like testosterone, insulin, etc., and simply dividing as fast as it can. That's why it's small cell cancer, it doesn't take time to grow before dividing again.
Looks like a clinical trial would be my best option to get off what appears to be "chemo for life". Gonna have to start bothering Dr. Beltran at Dana Farber.
Thanks for the update, Tom and congratulations on the good progress. Praying for you and everyone.