Lab Rats

This week has been a whirlwind of events…
Sunday afternoon Kev starts worrying about his left arm which had apparently been getting weaker and loosing sensation. So he calls his Dr and they tell him to come into the ER for an assessment. Kev was obviously concerned that his arm was about to go the same way as his legs. The ER Dr calls in the neurosurgeon on-site (5th year intern). They review the charts/scans and wanting more experience call in the on-call neurosurgeon. They all decided that there really is nothing they can do surgically (since either the brain or spinal tumors could be causing the problem) and paralysis of the arms is likely inevitable, but reserve final decision for Kev’s neurosurgeon himself whom they expected to be in the next day, Monday. Kevin was admitted for observations and we waited. On Monday we found out his neurosurgeon was going to be in surgery all day so he wouldn’t be able to speak with us until Tues – more waiting. But on Tuesday we had a good discussion. Kev and his neurosurgeon get along great. Kev always has a bunch of questions / theories on how the brain works and his Dr really enjoys these conversations. He spent about an hour with us drawing up a bunch of pictures/diagrams and explaining each brain tumor site in addition to the T1 tumor – but the short story is he's convinced that the T1 tumor was the cause of the arm problems and he also was convinced he could remove a significant amount of it and told us he could fit us in within the next few days if desired. So we have another option, but before we make any decisions we want to speak with Targeted Therapy which is scheduled for Wed.

Kev remained “admitted” to make it easier for him since he needed EKG and blood work run on Wed morning and the Target Therapy appt in the afternoon. But just as I was ready to wheel him down for the blood work we were informed that Target Therapy could not see him if he was still “admitted” even though his PA had made some “agreements” the day before– after a few frantic phone calls Kev was discharged in record time – 15 minutes, a process that typically takes hours – and we were on our way. The meeting with Targeted Therapy went great – they presented us with the option of participating in a Phase 1 trail with a new drug ANG1005. It is a mitotic inhibitor combined with amino acid peptide that crosses the blood-brain barrier. It’s considered a “smart-chemo” since it targets the cancer cells specifically without destroying everything else in its path. It has shown promise in lab rats and Kev will be part of a small group humans to first receive the drug. The protocol is pretty simple – IV infusion of 500 mg of ANG1005 every 3 weeks and staging scans every 6 weeks. There is one catch, even though the MDA folks accepted him, the pharmaceutical company, Angiochem, gets final approval and apparently there is some concern regarding his paralysis. A treatment is scheduled for thursday, but is contingent on final approval and we won't know if we have that approval until after we will have already left the house.

Kev decided he wants to try the trial and if it doesn’t work, i.e. tumors grow & his arm further degrades he’ll quit and switch paths.

Thursday proves to be an interesting day….