You're not going to believe this ...... :o)

[Guest guest]

Rick had his CT's of the brain,abdomen, and pelvis Thursday .......

and had his CEA test. Are you sitting down???? His CEA has dropped

from 360 (on March 23rd) to 61!!! I thought maybe they just dropped

the zero behind the 61 and meant 610! ;-) His tumors are all either

the same or minimally smaller ........... and the swelling around

his brain tumor is " less prominent overall " . Can you believe that?

The point is ......... the Erbitux and CPT-11 (which Rick had not

been on since May of 2003) is apparently trying hard to kick

some " tumor ass " !!! Unfortunately, Rick isn't feeling any

better ....... and overall, this may not change things for him.

It's like a post earlier said ........ it's not always the actual

tumors that take one down, but the lengthy fight that drags their

body down. I believe that is Rick's situation. HOWEVER .......

those of you that are fighting hard need to be encouraged by this

news, because who knows what would have happened if Rick had access

to this Erbitux or Avastin EARLIER in his fight ....... before his

body had become weary???? I think it could truly make a huge

difference in those that are beginning treatment or don't have as

much tumor burden as Rick does. I am just amazed at the results

he's getting ....... and he only had 4 treatments of Erbitux, one

with FOLFOX4, one alone, and two with CPT-11!! So you guys get out

there and get that stuff cranking through those veins ....... you

may be amazed at the results too!!

Best Wishes to All,

Donna Sisco dsisco@...

S/O Rick, 50, Arkansas

09/19/02 - Diag. Stage IV Colon Cancer with 6 of 6 Pos. Nodes and

60%+ Tumor Burden in Liver

09/24/02 - 10cm Tumor removed from Colon

10/22/02 - Began CPT-11/5FU/LV Chemo - Had some shrinkage in 7

months

06/11/03 - Appt at MD - Suggested changing chemo – failing

current treatment

07/25/03 - Began Oxaliplatin/Xeloda Chemo

10/20/03 - Increased Xeloda – Still failing treatment

11/12/03 - Added Celebrex - continued failure

01/15/04 - Switched to FOLFOX4 chemo

02/23/04 - CEA drops 80 points

02/25/04 - First Symptoms of Brain Problem

03/01/04 - Brain Scan (MRI/CT) 1 " Brain Tumor - Junction of Left

Frontal and Parietal Lobe

03/02/04 - Began 10 Whole Brain Radiation Treatments and Decadron

03/15/04 - Last WBR Treatment

03/18/04 – Took last Decadron - extremely fast weaning process

03/22/04 - First Grand Mal Seizure (5 day hospital stay)

03/22/04 - Back on Decadron, added Dilantin & Insulin

04/06/04 - Resumed Folfox4 Chemo with added drug Erbitux

04/13/04 – Not metabolizing Dilantin – adding Keppra

04/20/04 - Switched to CPT-11 with Erbitux

05/04/04 – Beginning weaning from Dilantin, will stay on Keppra