Anna's Book of Days

Treatment on Thursday was easy and uneventful.  The port connection was painless, my labs were good, and the infusions were simple. Four down, two to go! We started the morning with my checkup with Maddie and Dr. Hurvitz, where we found Dr. Hurvitz ecstatic over Patient #1's success. Patient #2 had her surgery on Monday and the pathologist unofficially told Dr. Hurvitz that she too appeared to be cancer-free, although of course they won't know for sure until the full pathology report is done. Dr. Hurvitz referred to this trial as the "happy trial". It will be so wonderful if this treatment becomes the standard of care for all early-stage breast cancer patients soon - I would love to feel like I not only got myself cured, but helped a little bit to make this treatment available to other women too. My questions this time were about about the amount of treatment that I'm getting - how was it decided that six neoadjuvant and twelve adjuvant treatments wer...

On Tuesday, we met with Dr. Kristi Funk, surgical oncologist and founder of Pink Lotus. It was the first time we met her (when we went to Pink Lotus before, right after my diagnosis, she was on vacation, so we met with her colleague Dr. Miller instead). Dr. Funk became a celebrity of sorts two years ago when the New York Times published an op-ed by Angelina Jolie describing her decision to have a prophylactic double mastectomy due to her BRCA-positive status. Dr. Funk was her surgeon (also, earlier, Sheryl Crow's), and she became a household name in the breast cancer community as a surgeon to the stars. Not being a star myself, I probably would not have even considered her except that my OB had mentioned that I might want to look into Pink Lotus, where several of his patients had been treated. Our initial consultation with Dr. Miller was exactly what I needed at the exact time that I needed it - so I continued to be intrigued by Pink Lotus even though I planned to use Dr. Giuliano ...

I just heard from Patient #1 in my trial, who is also in the test arm and who had her surgery, a bilateral mastectomy, last Thursday. She has received her pathology report from the removed tissue: not one single cell of cancer! I have to admit, I'm holding back happy tears as I write this. The efficacy of the drugs is well-documented (for metastatic cancer at least), but there is a big difference between reading the stats in a dry clinical study abstract and hearing from a real live person who you've met and talked to that she is now cancer-free because of these drugs. I knew from the start that there was every reason to believe that they would work - but belief is so different from fact. This is a fact - they worked for her! Here's hoping that they do the same for me.

Next week we are meeting with Dr. Funk on Tuesday and Dr. Giuliano on Wednesday. At this point, I'm very close to making the decision to have a double mastectomy, but I want to keep an open mind until I have had those two consultations. However, I also want to be able to explain my thinking to both doctors, so I've spent this week trying to clarify my position: 1. Because I am so young, I am concerned that my risk of recurrence is higher than average, based on data such as the following:  - A 2011 study of 1,210 Spanish patients found that non-metastatic breast cancer diagnosed at a young age (≤40 years) is correlated with higher recurrence rates.  - A 2010 Canadian study of nearly 600 younger women with a very early stage of breast cancer found that cancer recurred in the affected breast of 18% of women under 45 by an average of nearly eight years after treatment, compared with 11% of women aged 45 to 50.  - A 2010 Israeli study of breast cancer patients from ...

Treatment last Thursday went well - I used Emla, the numbing cream Maddie prescribed for me, on my port, so this time connecting my line was painless. And the infusions, once again, were very easy. After only three treatments, I already feel like a pro - so by the time I get into my adjuvant treatment, I imagine I'll hardly even notice it's happening. This is such a blessing - if each of these treatments was an ordeal, it would be much harder to face the remaining fifteen. Prior to treatment, I saw Maddie and Dr. Hurvitz for my usual checkup. I got to ask Maddie a number of questions that I've accumulated since my last treatment: Is my treatment chemotherapy or not? This question stemmed from a debate, mostly semantic, that Seth and I had, where he thought it was and I thought it wasn't. The answer is that he was right - technically. Technically, it is chemotherapy, because the definition of chemotherapy is any treatment that causes cell death. Maddie sa...