Visit today with Dr. Garland

Hi All -
We saw Linda Garland, the oncologist today, and she checked Rick's vitals, took some blood, listened to his lungs, etc. All was good. She asked if he was having a harder time breathing in Tucson than he did in Boston (he nodded) and she said it's the elevation here. She said that his treatment will start with radiation and then follow with chemo. (We talked with Jackie Lee from Boston yesterday and she told us that Dr. Garland feels that Rick should have chemo in addition to radiation - even though Sugarbaker told us it would just be radiation.)

Dr. Garland referred us to Dr. Alexander Chee, radiation oncologist at UMC. She said sometimes she orders chemo and radiation at the same time, but because Rick's radiation will be in the lung cavity right up against the heart, they wouldn't do both at the same time. We have an appointment to see Dr. Chee on June 1, next Tuesday. Dr. Garland said it will take him some time to plan the radiation and it won't start immediately. She said if there is too long of a gap (more than 2 weeks), she will give Rick a round of chemo before the radiation starts. We will e-mail her after the appointment next Tuesday and make a decision about the chemo. We asked how long the radiation will run and she said it varies, so I guess we will learn more next Tuesday!

One interesting thing is that an analysis was done by Oncotech of how Rick's tumor responded to different types of chemo. Dr. Garland was dismissive of the analysis because it did not test pemetrexed (Alimta) which she said was one of the most effective drugs for treating meso and the analysis has not been approved by the FDA. I will send an e-mail to Sugarbaker asking why pemetrexed was not included in the test and let you know what he said.

I will post again next Tuesday after we see Dr. Chee.