Mark, Ronda, Matt, Mom, & Dad met with the oncology team today to discuss Mark's treatment. The team was very open and answered every one's questions and you can imagine that 2 PhDs, 2 PAs and one of NASA's first rocket scientists was quite the QA session!
Mark will first undergo chemo treatments to try to shrink the tumor. The surgeon wants to go in for another colonoscopy and make sure that he is only dealing with one cancerous tumor. The oncologist wanted Mark's liver enzymes down a little more before beginning the treatments. The chemo will likely start in a week. In the mean time, Mark will have a port-a-cath inserted to aid in administering the chemo.
The chemo treatments will be a 4 hour sessions every other week. To begin, the oncologist will use only chemo, but when Mark's laproscopic surgery incisions heal, the doctor will likely add Avastin to the treatments. The oncology team believes it will take 4 - 6 treatments to shrink the tumor. They will run a CAT scan around this time and determine if the tumor has shrunk enough to run another colonoscopy. This puts us at the end of December or into January next year.
In the future, the oncology team also discussed doing a peritoneal wash with the chemo. They say this is very effective for getting rid of those small lesions across the peritoneum.
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