Today's Meeting with Radiation Oncologist

The following notes are from meeting with Dr. Karyn Goodman, radiation oncologist at Sloan on 11/23/11.........

Radiation will be 28 treatments over 5 and half weeks and will encompass about 1hr each time and will see Dr. Goodman every Monday

      ----prior to starting will do seeds in tumor for targeting (appt 12/20) and simulation appt (to be scheduled) as "dry run" with breathing HW  from CD as prep and to bring CD to simulation appt.

Will first have another 2 or 3 rounds of chemo before starting radiation  which will begin 2 or 3 wks after last chemo round---to be decided with Dr. Yu at this coming monday appt.

Will do a pre-radiation scan to help plan radiation targeting  and then another about 6 wks after radiation ends(often shrinking kicks in that much time post actual radiation)

Radiation is more aimed at shrinking tumor than chemo (more general to stop spread) and prior CT scan was taken earlier than usual in the chemo process

Good signs that the tumor has not spread and that tumor markers have gone down and that the tumor is placed "far out in the portal" (?) and easier to do "reconstructive"

With shrinkage pre-whipple, the 5 yr survival rate is 35%

From Laurie's profile, 25% go to surgery, but according to Dr. KG it is increasingly more likely in her recent experience (new protocol in last 4 years)  not to have shrinkage, but to keep it in check with or without chemo and to continue living for years (4 or 5 so far, but this is a new population, so unsure about limits of longevity as of now)