So a quick update if you didn’t see my IG story on Thursday.
(also, sidenote, links to both Instagram and to my email are in the left margin on desktop but I think they might not show up on mobile or in the app. I will try to figure out a fix for that at some point. Also, I’ve opened Disqus comments so people without tumblr blogs should now be able to comment on posts.)
So officially my CT scan results are stable. Yippeeee! I have a bone scan next week and unless something really weird pops up there or I develop other symptoms, we continue on current treatment until the next scan 12 weeks from now.
Now the nitty gritty: my lung is showing signs of fibrosis in the area that was radiated and the site of the pneumonitis. Nothing unexpected there - it takes about 6 months for lung tissue to begin to scar over and that is the process happening now. Still no explanation for the pneumonitis flare up but it might have been the fibrosis beginning or seasonal allergies. So that will be a thing to watch because it’s possible allergies will keep on triggering it.
Now about the actual mets: on immunotherapy, scans can look wonky. Some lesions can increase due to immune activity - they swell as they’re infiltrated by immune cells. The CT scan can’t tell very well whether a lesion is enlarging because of that or because of tumor growth. Oncologists are starting to refer to these swellings as pseudo-progression and it’s becoming an important thing to assess carefully as you can imagine, as it can change prognosis and treatments drastically depending on whether there is real progression or just immunotherapy induced tumor bloating.
I have a bunch of lesions staying stable, a number that are shrinking, and one in my liver which is slightly bigger. Why is it bigger? We don’t know. Could be progression, could be pseudo-progression. Overall my oncologist was super pleased. She told me she sort of expects a meandering process. I mean of course, everyone wants the ideal, “all mets are shrivelling up” or even “we can’t see anything bad at all” but that’s just a very rare occurrence in metastatic breast cancer.
And speaking of rare, I’m starting to become a rare person.
19 months on first line treatment, still mostly stable. In triple negative metastatic breast cancer, this is not the norm at all. Let me put this in context for you. Close your eyes & stop reading here if you don’t like stats ....
median overall survival for metastatic triple negative is 10-20 months
So look, being 19 months in, on the first line treatment is pretty bloody amazing.
Also amazing are these tomatoes that my neighbour grew and is sharing with me! I’ve been having so many lovely tomato salads. Really nothing like a fresh homegrown tomato.
