Dana-Farber Consult

Dad and I took Mama Marian all the way to Bean Town yesterday for a 1pm consult with Dr. Jan Drappatz, M.D., with the Center for Neuro-Oncology at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.  We met with him and Dr. Wagle, a Clinical Fellow, and they reviewed mom's MRI from February 9th. They came to a similar conclusion as Dr. Hegde and Dr. Dowsett at UCONN had after reading the scan.  The tumor is the same size as it was in the most recent MRI (December before mom's d/c after surgery) but it has "thickened".  This could mean that the tumor is leaking "contrast fluid" into the tissues next to it or the tumor is growing.  It is unclear right now whether or not the Temador (the oral chemo pill) is working. 

However, Dr. Drappatz would like to do either an MGMT test to determine the tissue's sensitivity to the Temador or a very new Gene Expression Profile that looks at a variety of genes expressed in the tumor to determine whether or not mom has the enzyme that responds to the Temador.  The test takes 10 days and they will need to first acquire a "block" of the original tissue biopsied during mom's surgery in November from UCONN. 

So, we go back to Dana-Farber on the 12th of March to get another MRI in the morning and then meet with Dr. Drappatz and Dr. Wagle to go over the results of the gene expression profile and/or MGMT and the MRI.  

It's nice having options and mom is excited about being involved in any kind of clinical study or gene testing.  We continue to cross fingers, toes, legs, and sometimes eyes...