We had our consult with Dr. Rubin yesterday, and we received a ton of information, including what seems like a very aggressive game plan to attack these cancer cells. Sam will begin chemotherapy on Monday. His chemo cycles will be approximately 3-4 weeks, depending on how his immune system recovers each time. His cycles will consist of:
Week 1: 5 days of Temozolomide by mouth, 5 days of Irinotecan by IV
Week 2: 5 days of Irinotecan by IV
Week 3: Rest/Recover
It looks like he will have about 12 rounds of chemotherapy total. One thing that we are very happy about is that, aside from the first administration of the chemo, all of it will be able to be done at home with a home nurse. So this will minimize our LONG trips to the University of Chicago (yesterday took us 2 hours to get home!).
He will have some other drugs that he will be taking to combat some of the symptoms of chemo, plus some antibiotics to help prevent infections. After 2 rounds of chemo, he will get re-scanned to see how the tumor is responding. If, after 2 rounds, the tumor has shrunk significantly, he will have his surgery at that point. If not, they will check again after 4 rounds and possibly do the surgery then. The rest of the chemo will be "clean up" chemo, to get any lingering cells.
A recurrence of Ewing's (or any type of cancer really) is always more threatening than the first time around. So please pray that the chemotherapy does it's job and kills as many of these cancer cells as possible. Also, please pray that the side effects of chemotherapy are kept to a minimum. Last time, he had a terrible time with chemo, but these are new drugs so we don't really know what to expect.
Thank you again to everyone for your continued support. We will continue to keep you posted on how he is doing.
Glad you have a plan and really thankful you are able to do it at home. We are praying every day and night. Love you!
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