Scan Results Remain "Stable"

I know it's been a while since my last update, but quite honestly, there's been nothing new to report.  I'm still receiving Yondelis treatments every 4 weeks and Yondelis and I are still getting along.

I did, however, have 2 new scans done at the end of last week:

1. A "head to toe" PET/CT scan, the first I've ever had
2. An MRI of my pelvis/sacrum

The results came in just today for those and both indicate:

1. No significant growth or evidence of disease progression of dominant lesion.
2. No evidence of further metastatic disease elsewhere in the body.

So things remain as they have since September 2019: stable.  I couldn't be happier with the results!

I also wanted to add a few more details about the PET/CT scan since this is such a unique scan.  Actually it's two different scans: a PET scan combined with a CT scan.  These scans are taken separately (minutes apart from each other), both from the same machine and with the patient unmoved the entire time.  Through some fancy software, these two scans can be viewed independently or together as a composite image.

About an hour before the scan starts, you get an injection of radiative sugar known as FDG.  Since cancer cells take up this FDG sugar, the PET scanning machine is able to measure the radiation signal and identify "hot" spots.  The more FDG the cancer cell takes up, the "hotter" it is on the scan.  The "hotness" of an area is measured as a Standardized Uptake Value (SUV), ranging from 0 to 16.  Anything with an SUV greater than 2.0 is suggestive of malignancy.

So if I haven't put you to sleep yet, you must be wondering: what is the SUV of your tumor?  It reported in at a relatively mild SUV of 2.5, which is not so hot (in all the good ways).  According to Dr. Ummed, this indicates that the tumor is not very active, further emphasizing the stable characteristics we have observed for the past 8 months.  Again, very good news!

In other news, Round #19 starts on June 11.  But no worries; all is good here!