Dear Colleagues,

As many are aware, my cancer marker in blood was going up the last 6 weeks, from stable 11 for 7-8 months, to 23 six weeks ago and 30 two weeks ago (up to 35 is considered to be safe value).  Thus, I accelerated visit to my clinic in Scottsdale for scans (done every 3-4 months) - Karen & I reached here on Sunday evening.

I had CT & PET scans plus blood tests yesterday (Monday).  The results from the oncologist meeting late today confirm our suspicion: there is indeed a new small tumor growing off my left lung.  They will do more tests to determine its nature but it appears that I'll go on a new course of chemotherapy starting soon.  The duration depends on my response and decrease of cancer marker but may easily last 6-8 weeks, unknown yet.  Fortunately, owing to marker value determined every 2 weeks (under stable condition, it was measured every 4 weeks, but since it began to rise, we started measuring it every 2 weeks), the tumor was caught early.

With this, I'll delay my visit to UCLA (was scheduled for Dec-Feb) and now it may not occur at all.  I need to stay here under my oncologists' care until the cancer marker decreases and remains stable at a safe value.  I'll continue working from here remotely and have regular meetings with my research students by Skype, Tel calls and email - work has always been good therapy for me.

I thank you for your continued prayers and good wishes.

With best wishes - Happy Thanksgiving!

Arvind

Arvind Varma

R. Games Slayter Distinguished Professor

Charles D. Davidson School of Chemical Engineering

Purdue University

Editor, Cambridge Series in Chemical Engineering

 

Tel: 765-494-8484; Fax: 765-494-0805; Email: avarma@purdue.edu

https://engineering.purdue.edu/ChE/People/ptProfile?id=11068

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