First Scans after Chemo - Good News!

[Avanat]

My husband Steve (Stevana on this site) had his first scans post chemo Thursday, March 18. The scans show his cancerous lymph nodes have all decreased in size and his bone mets are stable. Having no new growth and cancer shrinking is the best we could have hoped for so we are very relieved. Because he’s in a clinical trial (on an immunotherapy drug - Opdivo) he will have scans again in 3 months. If things continue to improve then they will know the immunotherapy is also what’s helping the cancer shrink not just the chemo.

As a rare side effect of Opdivo, he developed stomatitis which is still an issue and he’s being monitored by an ENT doctor. We discussed this with his oncologist and Steve is going to try some things (changes in diet, additional mouth rinses) in addition to the prescription mouth rinse he is using to see if it will help. He plans to have immunotherapy at least one more time next month as he really doesn’t want to drop out of the trial. His oncologist said if it doesn’t get better he can take a pause from the trial. If he drops out, he can’t go back but a brief pause is allowed.

His PSA is .10. The goal when he started treatment was to get his PSA to .70 so the fact it is even lower is great. Unfortunately as you all know the drugs to keep it low have terrible side effects so it’s a huge trade off.

We had a nice dinner and a toast that night to celebrate. I also got my first Covid vaccine shot Friday so this has made it a very happy weekend. We all know this journey has a lot of ups and downs so we are embracing this positive news.

[Hidden]

All I can say is Hot Dog! Just don't eat to many at once. Congratulations on his excellent response.

[Avanat in reply to Hidden]

To keep with a good prostate cancer diet, we kept the hot dogs to a minimum.🌭

[Tall_Allen]

Great news! Especially about the good response to chemo. I think that if Opdivo has any benefit, it will be as an adjuvant therapy to chemo or radiation, so I am hopeful that that will work too.

[Avanat in reply to Tall_Allen]

He has his next scans Aug. 5th so we’re hoping they show the immunotherapy helps. Hopefully this trial will show that this particular drug will work well with chemo. 🤞🙏

[monte1111]

Nice dinner and a toast. That's what it's all about. Congrats!

[Avanat in reply to monte1111]

Thank you. We may have had more than one toast to the good news. 🥂

[monte1111 in reply to Avanat]

That's why toasters have more than one slot.

😁

[j-o-h-n]

Have another dinner and a toast on me............

Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.

j-o-h-n Tuesday 03/23/2021 5:23 PM DST

[Avanat in reply to j-o-h-n]

Whole wheat or rye?

[j-o-h-n in reply to Avanat]

Pumpernickel?

Good Luck, Good Health and Good Humor.

j-o-h-n Wednesday 03/24/2021 9:29 AM DST

[Boywonder56]

credit or debit....