Tomorrow I am scheduled for my 7th infusion for Doxil but at this point I am not sure I will get it. Let me back up a little.
A month ago when I had my blood work done in preparation for my 6th treatment of Doxil on February 7th, my CA 125 number had jumped up to 186. Imagine my surprise! It had been coming down for the past 6 months from 304 and stabilized at 114. And my CT Scan last month indciated very good results with no visible signs of disease. Today I had a chance to discuss this with my oncologist and she is troubled by it. If today's blood work shows an increase in this number again then she might stop the Doxil treatment and switch me to a different treatment.
So now I am concerned that Doxil is not working for me. How strange is that? My CT Scan was good but somewhere in my body microscopic cancer cells are emitting certain proteins that are being picked up by the CA 125. It is maddening to say the least.
Well if it is not working anymore then the best course of action is to stop. It may be for the best. There is a world wide shortage of Doxil and hospitals are prioritizing who gets the treatment based on how effective it is for those people. If it is no longer working for me then someone else can get it and I move onto another treatment.
I will know tomorrow just before I get treatment whether it is a go or not.
We also discussed my meeting with Dr. Welch. Unfortunately, my oncologist has not received his notes yet so I summarized our meeting. You have already read how my meeting went in my last post. Based on our conversation Dr. Califaretti has already contacted someone at Princess Margaret to keep me in the loop for clinical trials. Hopefully something will come of that in the near future.
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