Scans and Waiting on Next Steps

Julia had here first set of scans today – ultrasound of her abdomen and CT scan of her chest. In addition, she had her usual labs to check her blood counts. Her counts have dropped since last week – hemoglobin is 8.5 (reference 11.5-15.5), platelets 93 (reference 150-400) and ANC 518. Julia will need to go back to clinic on Wednesday to have labs drawn again. We had to wait until the early evening to get any word on Julia’s scans. Dr. Stern called to say that the tumor has shrunk to 2×3 cm. The chemo has done a great job in shrinking the tumor. Reason to celebrate! At this point, they cannot tell if the tumor is live or if it is dead tissue.

We knew from Julia’s previous x-ray that the tumor began to shrink inward towards the center of her body (not to the outer edge of her lung). From these scans, it appears that the tumor is growing on lung tissue however it is just an odd location for a lung tumor to grow. It does not appear to be growing on the media sternum (which is a good thing).

We still don’t know what next steps will be. The doctors will be meeting on Thursday for the Solid Tumor review. Julia’s case will be discussed with oncology, surgery and radiology to decide on the next course of treatment.