I guess Paul and I are going to drive to Boston to see Karen this weekend. We may go see Dr. Howard Fine at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston on Monday. He has done a Phase I (or maybe Phase II) clinical trial using thalidomide for brain tumors, and is going to be starting a new trial (I assume Phase III) using thalidomide and BCNU. I've talked to the coordinator and she's trying to set up an appointment for us, although she said it might not be possible because Dr. Fine is going out of town.
We're not sure if thalidomide is really the direction to go next, but I figured if we're going to be in Boston anyway, we might as well try to find out some information if we can. I had also sent an email message to Dr. Judah Folkman, who's at Children's Memorial Hospital in Boston, asking about his clinical trial. He's been in the news regarding Angiostatin, which is another anti-angiogenic drug like thalidomide. It turns out, however, that his clinical trial probably won't get started until 1999.
We're assuming that the next step in Paul's treatment will be a clinical trial of some sort. Dr. Nicholas, the neuro-oncologist at U of C, said he wanted Paul to have another MRI and come see him after he's done with this cycle of chemotherapy. He had suggested earlier the possibility of a clinical trial of Temazolomide at Northwestern when the conventional treatment is done. We don't really know any details about that yet. I imagine when the time comes, we'll go with whatever Dr. Nicholas recommends, but I figure it doesn't hurt to explore all possibilities and learn as much as we can.
Continue to: July 9, 1998
Return to: Diary of a Brain Tumor Patient's Wife
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Created: May 31, 1999
Last updated: July 18, 2010