Medical Marvels

Here’s something new in the field of treating head and neck cancer. The November 8 2008 issue of The Economist magazine had an article on the use of nano particles being used in human trials at three Texas medical centers for treating head and neck cancer. 80 trillion particles are injected into one’s blood stream and they find their way to one’s tumor leaving your healthy cells alone. They find your tumor based on the unique properties of the tumor’s blood capillaries. The nano particles are then heated and the tumor dies. The article goes on to say that in lab experiments on mice the tumors disappeared in 10 – 14 days without any noticeable side effects. Here’s a link to the article…

http://www.economist.com/science/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12551598

It all sounds so promising. I hope we hear more about this as the human trials unfold.

As for me, things are okay. No new health issues. To wrap up a loose end from an earlier post, my health insurance company contacted me today and agreed to pay for my ongoing Avastin chemo treatment. It took a great deal of work on my part (with help from a few family members – THANK YOU) to educate the insurance company about my case and their contractual commitment. On the negative side, the action of my insurance company two months ago disrupted my then ongoing chemo cycle. What this means to me is if my cancer does come back, I’ll never know if it was due to this disruption, but I’ll always wonder. On the positive side, they did the right thing by now agreeing to continue with the treatments. It will be interesting to see if my doctor wants to go back to my prior chemo regimen or continue with the current wait and see approach. I’ll take his lead on this.

That's it for today. Thanks for checking in and take care of yourself.