We saw Dr. Nicholas at the U of C today. He looked at the MRI films with us, and said they look typical for post radiosurgery. He thinks the increased swelling is probably treatment related, and gave Paul a prescription for Decadron (2 mg. 3x/day for total of 6 mg./day).
Paul actually started taking Decadron last Saturday since he had some left from before and Dr. Nicholas said he could start on it. It seems to have helped already. Dr. Nichols said to stay at 6 mg./day for a couple of weeks, and then if Paul is doing well to gradually reduce.
He recommended that Paul stay with the PCV chemotherapy at this time. If he continues to do well with this next cycle, then Paul should do another cycle after that. If symptoms get worse, then Paul should get another MRI after this next cycle. If that MRI shows tumor growth, then we should consider something else besides PCV.
Dr. Nicholas said that if we decide to go with a clinical trial, he would recommend Temazolomide instead of Thalidomide. They are doing a clinical trial with Temazolomide at Northwestern, so it would be a lot more convenient than going to New York for Thalidomide. Dr. Nicholas has also had some experience with Temazolomide and has seen tumors respond to it after they quit responding to PCV.
Continue to: Mar. 11, 1998
Return to: Diary of a Brain Tumor Patient's Wife
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Created: May 29, 1999
Last updated: July 18, 2010