Vanderbilt

 It was great to meet with Dr Berlin at Vandy again.  He's very knowledgeable and spent a good 40 minutes with us explaining the in's and out's of PC.  The purpose of the trip was to gain more information on a clinical trial they have going on.  The trial name for the drug is STA 9090.  It's in Phase II which means it's been tested on a few people basically to figure what amount the dosage should be for treating patients.  I was very eager to hear success info and what side effects I could encounter.  Well, the trial is still very new and he basically has not collected enough information to form an opinion if it's working or not.  The few people that did the treatment did not stay on it long because the side effects proved to be too much.  The biggest side effect noticed was fatigue that stayed with the patients for about 3 days.  This treatment is one day week 1, week 2, week 3 and then off week 4.  The people doing the treatment were not working like I'm trying to.  Only real way to make this treatment work is doing it on a Friday and use the weekend to recover.  Well, I'm a big fan of spending time with my family and if you take all of my weekends away, that's not really living life.  In my mind, Dr Berlin, who was very honest with us, questioned rather it was worth us driving that far every week to give it a shot.  I haven't 100% decided against trying to make this work but I'm about 90% leaning away from it.  I do have 2 very viable options that I can do here in Louisville.  Both are treatments that are done weekly but the side effects are very minimal and I can probably go back to work the day after the treatment.  Gemcitibine is the standard treatment for PC and some people respond to it and some don't.  I'm optimistic I'll have some success with it because my body has responded well in the past.  Gemcitibine plus tarceva is the most popular option for me but I can also shoot to do gemcitibine plus abraxine.  Abraxine is a very common chemotherapy used in breast cancer treatments and is currently being studied as a clinical trial for pancreatic cancer.  It's getting good results thus far.  It's not FDA approved for pancreatic cancer as of now but it is FDA approved for other cancers.  Basically, we'd have to run it past the insurance company to see it they'll approve gemcitibine with abraxine.  It's getting approved commonly so this may be a good option either for now or later if the other doesn't have any success.  I need to make a decision very soon and start this up either this week or next at the latest.
Thank you Wegner's for dinner and good company while we were in Nashville!