As many of you know, we went through many oncologists, surgeons and other doctors, none of whom gave us any hope except managing this disease with chemo and radiation. Many people who are intimately acquainted with the medical community in Dallas told us see Dr. Nemunaitis at the Mary Crowley Research Center. He is involved with the cutting edge research utilizing experimental genetic therapies, usually combined with traditional treatments. This seemed like a win-win since we didn't have to forego traditional treatments (which offered no hope) and could try some exciting new treatments that are in the clinical trial stage. With one call from Suzanne's dad, Scott, we were in that day to see Dr. Nemunaitis. We are so thankful for all of Scott's intervention in getting Dad into MRI's, CT's, doctor's, etc. The treatment program Dr. Nemunaitis has suggested is as follows (and this is a lay person's interpretation, so I may not get the interpretation totally right):
1. Clinical trial using chemo (gemcytabine) combined with Talabostat. This is a drug that excites the cytokines (which basically tell the body's cells when to die). Talabostat contains a PT-100 molecule that stimulates this process. It basically dumps massive quantities of what is already in your body in the hopes of kicking the body's natural immune system into overdrive and enhance chemo's ability to kill the cancer cells. Pray! This will be 7 weeks of chemo and 8 weeks of Talabostat.
2. If the chemo shrinks the pancreatic tumor enough to free up the major artery from the bowel to the heart. This is currently cancerous and the tumor has engaged 1 1/3 cm of the artery. This needs to be clear in order for Dr. Kuhn to be able to remove the cancer from the pancreas and liver. This needs to be done in order to develop our two experimental genetic therapies.
3. If the tumor is not sufficiently small, they may still operate to remove the cancerous tissue, or they may use radiation in an attempt to further shrink the tumor. Then they will harvest the cancerous tissue.
4. G-Vax. This is a vaccine created from the cancerous tissue and placed in an adenovirus (virus with the bad stuff taken out) and injected to get it to the cellular level. It works like a flu vaccine. It tells your body the cancer is the enemy and gets your immune system engaged in the battle.
5. Genomic Therapy. This is a really exciting clinical trial that has never been tested on humans, but has shown exciting results in the lab. They take healthy and cancerous tissue, break it down to the protien molecules, identify the 5-6 protiens that are different from the healthy tissue and responsible for the cancer's ability to reproduce. They then disable or destroy (not sure) these molecules. This is introduced into the body via adenovirus again, that keeps the body from destroying the medicine before it can get to the cellular level. If this works, it is mind boggling what this will do to cancer treatment.
As of yesterday, Dad had his first chemo treatment and feels fine. He didn't get sick at all and begins taking the Talabostat today. We are so relieved to have this process started and praying and waiting anxiously for God to move, either by His hand or the doctor's.
