Oncology Visit July 19

Today Ricky, Erika and I met with Dr Ali Chiquar(sp) from Salt Lake City. He comes down and holds a clinic once a month for all of the patients originally seen at the flagship Intermountain Center in SLC. He outlined what we know about the tumor and what the probable treatment course will be. Since scientists are unsure whether chemo or radiation is better most patients get both along the way. Ricky is now considering a protocol to determine which course of action to take. We are still waiting on one tumor marker (test to tell what is happening) to help determine this.

At this point the doctor did an exam and told Ricky he had a very good outcome from the surgery and that he has 4 good things going for him:

1. He is young and healthy and that means a lot with this diagnosis.
2. His diagnosis is an Oligodendroglioma which is better than the more common Astrocytoma.
3. He had a very good surgical resection. The Radiologist is calling it a complete resection but the doctor explained that with this tumor there is always the possibility of outlying cells.
4. There are no neurological deficits in Ricky's situation which is huge as most people suffer with neurological problems.

At this point we are waiting on these protocol papers to decide what the best treatment choice would be, and we are waiting on this one last tumor marker test which has some prognostic value to give Ricky treatment course guidelines.

The bottom line we will probably start chemo and/or radiation or both in about 6 to 8 weeks from the time of surgery. They want the original surgery to heal.

Ricky is doing great and is in great spirits. For Family Home Evening tonight we took out half of his staples. Erika will take out the other half in two days. They are going to Vegas in the morning and he will be in class Tuesday. We all wish you great luck Rick.

Jeff