We went to the orthopedic specialist today to get the MRI report details, and he said that the "lesion" (damaged area in the bone) in the femur is 7mm (barely more than 1/4 inch) in size, so there is still no need to do any surgical intervention to prevent spontaneous fracture... in other words, Lisa's bone there has adequate strength and isn't going to break on its own just from normal activities. Unless there's a big change in Lisa's discomfort (pain) level, it won't need to be rechecked for another 3 months.

Meanwhile, I got a text msg from our radiation oncologist that invited us to come to see him today instead of tomorrow since he knew we were already out and about for doctor visits. He had already looked at the PET/CT scan, and we brought him the MRI report and the orthopedic doctor's comments. Because of the small size of the actual lesion, he suggests waiting before we do more radiation on the leg area, despite the cancer moving down into the femur shaft. He said if Lisa's pain gets worse, he can start it at any time, but prefers to wait and see if this next type of chemo has a positive effect. He did suggest some changes in Lisa's medications for helping with her symptoms.

Later this afternoon, Lisa got a call from the oncologist's assistant at M.D. Anderson (in Houston) who said that the oncologist there suggested that Lisa come to Houston and participate in a Phase 1 trial. We recognize that M.D. Anderson is a research facility, but "Phase 1" means that the particular chemo has only been tested in the lab (petri dishes and animals) and hasn't yet been tried on people. As stated at the www.Cancer.gov website, Phase 1 trials usually enroll only a small number of patients -- sometimes as few as a dozen -- to evaluate how a new drug should be given (by mouth, injected into the blood, or injected into the muscle), how often, and what dose is safe. We're not keen on traveling for treatment with something that's so new and untried with unknown side effects, rather than treatment with something like Navelbine combined with Gemzar that are already known to have at least some percentage of positive results. The person at M.D. Anderson did confirm to Lisa that the Navelbine/Gemzar chemo would indeed be the next "standard" treatment protocol.