We met Dr. Dormady today to discuss the next treatment after WBRT and also asked him about the newly approved immunotherapy drugs, anti-PD1 agent, Keytruda and Opdivo.
Dr. D suggested that we do 4 more cycles of chemotherapy using the same cocktail drug as the last 8 cycles to keep Gwohann's cancer under control. We will do brain MRI and Lung CT scan at the end of Dec. to evaluate the effectiveness of WBRT and chemo. If his cancer is stable or better, will possibly try Keytruda or Opdivo. Dr. Dormady said that due to its clinical trial status in the past, immunotherapy has mostly been used on patients who have run out of treatment options and are in the terminal stage. He believes that for patient whose cancer is not progressing and who is still relative healthy, the treatment outcome should be much better. Hence, Gwohann will be a good candidate. That is an exciting news.
To get health insurance company to pay for Keytruda which costs $12500 a month, we will need to prove PD-L1 positive. Dr. Dormady will contact the Caris Molecular Testing lab to see if the test can be done on Gwohann's biopsy sample that was taken in Feb 2014. We will know more about Opdivo eligibility requirement later.
New drugs bring new hope. So thankful that we live in America and have access to the newest treatment options.
p.s. We have decided to forgo the NCI-Match clinical trial.
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