Cancer Update #2

An update on my husband's cancer diagnosis.

See previous updates:
- Cancer
- Update #1

 This is not the update I expected to give.

After James had surgery in August, things were looking up.  His huge cancer mass was gone & we were looking to the future.

Because James has a BRAF mutation, the risk of his cancer coming back is very high.  To combat this, he was going to start immunotherapy.  There is a clinical trial involving immunotherapy that the doctors thought James would be a good candidate for.  In preparation for the clinical trial, James had to do all new scans.  If he wasn't going for the clinical trial, the scans would have been 3 months after surgery.

The new scans revealed another mass in the same general area as the first mass meaning James still has cancer.  The mass is also in an area where it can't be surgically removed.

Because of the new developments, James will not be participating in the clinical trial.  He will still be receiving immunotherapy.  Because of the rapid growth of the new mass, James is also taking BRAF inhibitors to try to slow or stop the growth of the cancer.

We are so thankful that James was able to get the scans to detect that his cancer has returned.  If he had waited, the cancer could have spread even more.  Even though this isn't the update I wanted to give, we are still hoping for the best.  We are hoping that between the immunotherapy & BRAF inhibitors, the cancer will slow down.  We are trying to stay positive.

I will put up a question box over on my Instagram stories today in case you have any questions.

I want to thank everyone for the support they have shown during this time.  I know this topic is difficult for a lot of people so I totally understand if you're keeping your distance.