Audrey

She's sassy and smart. We are having a threesome.

There's me, Meagan, and.......Audrey - her wig. It appears the Cyberknife brain radiation treatment has a side effect other than brain irritation causing seizures. We are talking hair loss. Not just short hair, but falling out in clumps, patchy bald spots smooth as a baby's butt hair loss. All in the back. So right as she is a couple months out from her brain surgery and buzz cut, and she's moving from Sigourney Weaver/Demi Moore buzz to pretty short but pixie-ish fun haircut- we have major patchy spots happening. Thus Audrey.

We bought the wig back in the Fall when we thought she was going to undergo chemo and lose her hair. They don't take returns when you've taken a wig home, so it's been in storage. How handy. She made a public appearance today. It needs a bit of trimming and styling, but it looks very good on her.

But she probably needs to undergo another full buzz cut. Otherwise she is going to eventually have long har in the front and uber short hair in the back. And it may take a while before the hair returns. So I am getting the clippers ready.

The Tension Builds

It's at about this time  - ten days pre-scans - that the tension starts to build. Right now we are on an every other month PET/CT scan (insurance driven), which provides a bit more data than just a CT scan. The PET scan involves an infusion of radioactive sugar into your body and a device that measures the uptake of that radioactive sugar by cancer cells (cancer loves sugar). So you can really see where the cancer is, and unlike the CT scan which is just measuring tumor size, determine size and if a particular tumor is active or not.

Ipilimumab (Yervoy) - thoughts after treatment

One of the questions people are asking on one of the melanoma discussion boards I frequent is: "does presence of side effects indicate the drug is working?".

Conventional Treatment, Clinical Trials, Alternative Medicine, and Attitude

These four components make up the legs of the chair on which we are sitting to get Meagan disease free. Given we have been fortunate to dodge the vicious blow of melanoma that strikes fast and hard and leaves little time, we are engaged in all of these areas.

Yervoy

Yervoy is the new trade name for Ipilimumab, the drug Meagan has been on for her melanoma. She's finished with her course of treatment (it was 4 infusions of about 90 minutes each time, over a 9 week period). She got a scan at the start, one at the 12 week mark (tumors grew, bad sign) and has her final 16 week scan this coming week.

FDA approval of Ipilimumab

Meagan is on week 14 of her Ipilimumab treatment.  This is a biological treatment, not a chemotherapy, and one of the most promising developments in the treatment of metastatic melanoma. The treatment consisted of 4 infusions of the drug every three weeks, with a scan at the start, a scan at week 12, and one scheduled for week 16. Ipilimumab has not yet been approved by the FDA. That is scheduled for March 26, 2011. She is not part of the clinical trial, although the cost of the treatment is being covered by the sponsoring drug company. She is on what as known as compassionate use status.  It's that period in between conclusion of the clinical trials and before approval by FDA (looking at safety data and success rates).  They still use the data gathered by patients on compassionate use for safety and efficacy.