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