News on the Cancer fronts
I had a routine physical the other day, first full going over since my whole cancer ordeal. My physician (same one who pegged my initial diagnosis) was curious about my incision scar from the operation and I showed it to him...he said "That's a good one". Yep, or as Doc Choti calls it my 'Shark Bite'. It's big, its long and its impressive. I wear it with pride on the beach or at the pool. I hacked it.
Anyways, I got my blood, urine, colorectal / prostrate screening exam stuff done....everything. At the end I was given a long form with all the boxed checked off and in the doctor's comments box at the very bottom was written by my physician:
"HEALTHY MAN"
Now that may not mean a lot to most of you here, but I just stood out in the parking lot for a little bit and stared at that with a big grin on my face. What a journey it has been since 2005 - not sure I ever expected to see those words again on any kind of medical record of mine.
I'm still trying to help others with cancer. I get on average one call a week as a hotline volunteer for the RH BLOCH Cancer foundation and a patient adviser for the Caring for Carcinoid Foundation. I've done so many of them now that I know the drill, and most are all the same. Scared to death, absolutely confused beyond what you can imagine, and looking for fast answers and solutions. The single hardest concept that there is for me to get across to these callers is that if you REALLY want help, you have to help yourself first. Their destiny is in their hands and the actions are theirs to take. I can draw them a road map, but they have to take the journey of a thousand miles by putting that one foot out in front of another. Many want a taxi, or a shorter trip. They won't ever make it, in more ways than one.
My Surgeon, Dr. Mike Choti at Johns Hopkins, well...his star just keeps rising. Won't be long before I can say 'I knew him when.....', he's just exploding on the scene in new research, techniques and is in demand world-wide for his talents and teaching skills. He just developed a new blood test that detects genetic mutations found in colon cancer. When cancers grow, they shed their DNA into the bloodstream. With this new test, they can measure levels of cancer causing mutations in the blood and tell within 24 hours after surgery if any microscopic cancer was left behind. This is key, because its the cancer the doctors can't see that kills, so uncovering these hidden cells in the key to curing cancer. Its also effective on radiation treatments and chemo. AMAZING STUFF.
Choti was recently quoted in a Hopkins newsletter:
"A new colon cancer vaccine, monclonal antibody therapy, radio-immunotherapy, imaging-guided and robot-assisted surgery, and molecular-targeted therapies are all new approaches to treating advanced colon cancer."
Richard Schulick, the leading Pancreatic cancer surgeon at Hopkins said this in the same article:
"Most will need novel therapies. Other cancer centers are doing the same thing they were doing 20 years ago. We've shifted the paradigm here."
The lead esophageal surgeon, Stephen Yang, tells a story as well in this latest newsletter. Something I just witnessed firsthand this summer as I told ya'll about in a post a few months ago. He says to be wary of hospitals that tout minimally invasive gastric surgeries.
"There is really not much additional benefit to the patient. They really don't change the hospital stay. Its 7 to 10 days either way. (Yang operates on one to two esophageal patients each week, and is mortality rates are less than 1 percent)."
"However, there is a marketing benefit to community hospitals that attract patients with the idea of smaller incisions and shorter hospital stays. What they don't tell you is that when they botch the surgery, I'm the one who attempts to repair the damage with re-constructive surgery. Don't be fooled, good advertising does not necessarily equal good care."
He likens in to cooking:
"I like to cook. I can take a reciepe from Emeril and follow it step by step, but its probably going to taste better if Emeril makes it. Its the same with surgery. We have excellent results at Johns Hopkins because we have developed expertise. We do these procedures over and over."
Its wild times we live in....while the financial markets may be collapsing, the advances in cancer treatments are just plain stunning. And no one does cancer better than Johns Hopkins. They send out a great cancer newsletter to those that help donate to research. If you'd like to learn more, go to www.hopkinskimmelcancercenter.org Send in a few bucks, get the newsletter - its worthwhile.
Sorry to be so long winded on this. As you can tell, I'm passionate about cancer and the cures.
