Step 4: 3D Radiation Preparation

Soon afterwards, I went to see Dr. Myers at Earlysville and it was there that he explored further the possibility of 3D radiation (or tomography).

In the meantime I was persuaded by Sandy of Patient Advocates to give Dana Farber another try.  She had been dealing with Dr. Aymen Elfiky with some success, and he could access the Provenge treatment discussed earlier.  We met for the first time on 11 March 2011.  He asked me about my PSA and said: "If I say I can drop your PSA to 1.0 for 10 years, what would you say?"  My response was that he had my immediate attention.  We agreed that first would come the tests for 3D as that would give a good picture of where the cancer actually was.
After some negotiations with Patient Advocates, late in March 2011 I travelled to Orlando, to Sand Lake Imaging.  There, I was assured, was the equipment that could graph where the cancer was within me.  The idea was to come up with a 3D graph of the cancer, and then go to a place such as Sarassota where specialised 3D radiation could be used.  This would attack the cancers from many directions over six weeks, rather than harming healthy tissue with concentrated beams.

The radiologist spoke with me at length, describing the process and outlining the successes that he had had with Dr. Myers' patients.  If the bone lesions were 15 or less and any cancer in the lymph glands was limited to the lower abdomen, then I was a suitable candidate for 3D radiation.

Three days of scans later, I sat in front of a screen with the radiologist hoping to hear certain numbers.  After cautioning me that one test (bone scan) still had to come in, we looked at the screen.  It was eerie, seeing the cancer lesions on my pelvis, and two lymph glands affected too in the lower torso.  But the magic number was not exceeded.  I was told that the final results would be sent to Dr. Myers for him to approve for action.

Three weeks later I sat in on a conference call with Dr. Myers and my health care proxies, hosted at Patient Advocates.  Expecting good news, the bad news came quickly.  The bone scans had shown cancer lesions throughout my skeletal structure.  And as quickly as that, the idea of 3D radiation therapy went out the window.

Dr. Myers gave the suggestion that I should try again to get Provenge, and for that I needed to revisit Dr. Elfiky at DFCI.

In the meantime, my PSA more than doubled.  Oops!

22 APR 2011  PSA  27.08