Recent Scan Results

Kristi had both head and full body scans on Monday.  There isn’t much to wax philosophical about.  The doctors called it fairly stable and want her to continue with the immunotherapy treatments.  At this point there isn’t much other choice.  Unfortunately, headaches have taken over as the most prominent problem. Some good news is her back pain has become less of a problem in recent weeks.  We shan’t even try to venture a guess as to why.  She saw her pain management PA today who thoroughly discussed the headaches, prescribed a new drug to try, and will reach out to Dr Ganjoo to fill her in on the problem.

Although it may not seem like it from the tone of this post, we were pretty happy about seeing some shrinkage of tumors, especially in the lungs.  

Having cancer is one thing, suffering from side effects of it or the treatment is quite another.  She does have days without any headaches — which we relish. 

As usual now, we ran the results through ChatGPT, which now remembers all if her history we’ve already put in — it gives us the facts in terms we can understand.  Summary below.

In addition to Mother’s Day, Kristi’s birthday was Sunday — we had a nice meal with our mothers and our kids who live local and grand kids.

Layman’s Summary of Scan Results (May 12, 2025)

Head and Brain (MRI with Contrast):

The good news:

• No new tumors inside the brain tissue itself.
• The tumor near her left eye muscle (lateral rectus) and the previously treated skull base tumor have shrunk slightly, indicating continued positive response to CyberKnife and other treatments.
• Most scalp lesions are stable or smaller.
• No signs of bleeding, stroke, or fluid buildup.

Things to monitor:

• The area around the clivus (deep skull bone) shows slightly more enhancement, possibly just post-treatment effects, but worth watching.
• There’s a new 8 mm lesion near the back of her head, which might be a scalp tumor or a reactive lymph node.
• Some other bone and soft tissue areas in the skull (like the right parietal skull and jaw) remain unchanged.

Rest of the Body (PET-CT):

Improving/stable areas:

• Lung tumors have mostly shrunk and are less active, which is a great sign the therapy is helping.
• Some bone metastases (like in the sacrum and shoulder) are less active.
• Some soft tissue lesions in the back and shoulder are also improving.

New/worsening areas:

• New tumor in the liver, and existing liver spots are slightly larger.
• New cancer activity in the abdomen (mesenteric lymph nodes)—not seen before.
• The L5 spine lesion is more active and slightly bigger.
• Soft tissue tumors in the chest and back muscles are growing and more active, including a new area near the neck.
• Increased activity near the blood vessel repair site (IVC reconstruction), which could mean recurrence or inflammation.