The pathologist's report gave us some good news today.
The tumor they took out of Deb was a gastrointestinal
stromal tumor (GIST). A few years ago a GIST of that
size was practically a death sentence, but now there
is a drug for precisely this kind of cancer.
 
The drug is called Gleevec. It is one of the
new-generation cancer drugs that does something
smarter than ordinary chemotherapy. It has fewer side
effects than chemotherapy, and Deb can start taking it
as soon as she can eat solid food -- maybe by
Wednesday or Thursday. It's a pill, and doesn't
require any special trips to the clinic.
 
Gleevec was approved by the FDA in a hurry, because
nothing else worked against GIST tumors. That means
that there are a lot of miracle stories about it, but
not a lot of long-term data. Our oncologist, Roger
Lange, already has one miracle story: a patient who
was three weeks from death started taking Gleevec a
year and a half ago. His tumor shrank from
pregnancy-size to practically invisible, and he's
still alive and doing fine. "It's not a cure," Lange
cautions. But the hope is that it makes cancer a
chronic disease rather than a killer.
 
Lange, in his typically charming way of putting
things, told Deb, "It looks like you haven't used up
your nine lives yet."
 
It's too soon to jump to the Deb-is-going-to-be-OK
conclusion. But there is a reasonable path into the
future in which Deb survives to old age. We may not
need any additional miracles, just the ordinary kind
of good luck that anybody might hope for.
 
 
As far as recovering from surgery, Deb is doing great.
She gets up and walks a lap around the nurse's station
every few hours. She is eating custard and other mushy
stuff. And she hasn't been connected to an IV since
sometime Sunday afternoon. I expect her to come home
in a day or two.
 
Doug