A number of people have asked me why I will still need to do more chemo later this summer if the spot on my liver turns out to not be cancer and if the main tumor (or what is left of it anyway) is completely removed during surgery. The quick answer is that the additional chemo is preventative medicine.
Basically, the PET/CT technology is only refined enough to detect cancer that is the size of a pea or bigger; any cancer cell clusters smaller than that can slip through the cracks undetected. And it is these undetected cancer cells that grow over time and show up in later scans as a "relapse". And so doing additional chemo post-surgery will help to ensure that any microscopic satellite cancer cells are also killed and flushed away.
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3 comments:
Throw everything at it... and there is very little reason to look back and wonder if.
Julie,
This is such great news! Since you will be out of touch for awhile after your surgery, is there any way you can have someone update your blog so that we can know how you are doing post surgery? We are all anxious to get confirmation that the spot is a freckle. :-)
Thanks!
julie,
just got the link from phil yau. first just wanted to wish you the best and say that what you've done here is incredible. wow. you are an inspiration. finally, your posting about a million more moments - that was beautiful. i believe that you will have a billion more moments.
thank you, john
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