Meeting Dr. Shane Dormady

Today, we went to see Dr. Shane Dormady at the El Camino Hospital Cancer Center.

The facility is pleasant and the staff are warm and nice. Dr. Dormady explains things clearly and slowly. Dad liked him instantly. It was also great to find that Dr. Dormady did not comment about the stage of the disease. When he kindly said, 'You have been in the defense mode and was suffering, now we are going to fight back", Dad almost cried. We were encouraged that he understands our frustration and was positive about our treatment options.

We decided to go with Dr. Dormady and his team. After we exited the building, we bumped into a close friend who has been treated by Dr. Dormady and highly recommended him. It was a confirmation for our decision and we are very happy about our choice.

Next Steps:

• Next Monday - Education Session (3 hours)
• Tuesday - Chemo IV (6 hours)
• Wed and Thursday - Hydration (1.5 hours each)

Treatment plan:

1. Cisplatin + Alimta + Avastin.  Two cycles of chemo, each cycle 21 days.  Meaning chemo one day (6 hours IV), two days hydration (1.5 hour IV), then break.
2. PET scan after the chemo to see if the tumors have shrunk.
3. If the chemo is effective, 2 more cycles of chemo.
4. Determine if radiation treatment is possible
5. If all goes well, use the targeted therapy for maintenance.  The doctor's experience was that the targeted therapy is more effective if the tumors are smaller.  Hence, he recommends chemo first.  This is different approach from what Dr. Tai recommends

Notes:

• Send biopsy samples for gene mutation test.  
• Dr. Dormady is 80% sure that Dad's cancer type is adenocarcinoma because Dad does not smoke and also the locations of the tumors are more centralized.  
• Dad can continue to work after chemo, travel domestically. He should not do overseas travel.
• The doctor's main worry is the many small dots shown in the CT scan. The biopsy samples were not enough to determine if every small dots are cancerous or scars. The only way to do determine is by lung surgery and remove a large chuck of lung for sample, but we don't want to do that. We will have to wait to see if the dots disappear after chemo.

- Jacqueline