Good News From The Doctors

Monday afternoon we had two appointments at Swedish Hospital. The news we received was about as good as it gets. First, it was confirmed that the cancer had not spread to Marce's lymph nodes. Second, the tumor(s) were indeed two small tumors rather than one larger. This is good because one factor in Marce's survivability is the size of the largest tumor. Hence two small tumors is better than one. Dr. Hanson, Marce's surgeon, took out her drain tube which had been causing her quite a bit of discomfort.

Following the appointment with Dr. Hanson we met with Dr. Kaplan, our medical oncologist who also treated my mother and Barbara Hoffman. He said that he will submit Marce's tumor for something called onco dx testing which does a genetic mapping of her cancer to see how aggressive it is, and how responsive it will be to hormone and/or chemotherapy. Dr. Kaplan said that the results so far would indicate that she likely may be able to get away with just hormone therapy, with an estrogen blocker called tamoxifen without chemotherapy. This would be a real blessing. We should know in about a month what the onco dx results are and whether she can get away without chemo. He feels the chances are good.

Thanks again to everyone for their support and prayers!

Marc & Marce