12 October 2008
David C. Welch is a 42-year old man with a primary brain tumor in the left frontotemporal area. His treatment has included a biopsy and 2 total brain surgeries.
When David's March - August 2008 Carboplatin + VP-16 IV-based chemotherapy ended, new things have happened. David now has tumors #3 and #4, both found within weeks of each other. These tumors are being attacked in a clinical trial at NIH, with David being the last person in the entire clinical trial.
Chemotherapy results:
1.) Temodar chemotherapy began 10/31/05 and continued 28 cycles (2+ years) until 12/19/07.
2.) That's when a fast-growing brain tumor was discovered via MRI, and immediate surgery found an extremely rare GBM+PNET pathology.
3.) This resulted in radiation and low-dose chemotherapy 3 weeks later. This was called Carboplatin + VP-16.
4.) Since early September 2008, all this led to his current Avastin + Enzastaurin Chemotherapy Clinical Trial at NIH.
Other key points:
1.) Pathology indicates a Grade IV GBM+PNET brain tumor with an intact 1p-19q gene.
2.) Approximately 50% of brain tumor was debulked on 5/5/05. This was effective. Brain surgery on 12/27/07 was needed because of sudden, spiking tumor growth in the left frontal lobe.
3.) DNA testing indicates one copy of the G20210A mutation in the Prothrombin/Factor II gene, thus elevating risk for Deep Venous Thrombosis (DVT).
4.) Abnormal Rhythm ECG (electrocardiogram) reveals Atrial Bradycardia.
5.) A Post-Surgery Report from NYU tells about David's brain surgery that was very complicated because it dealt with a deep-seated invasive tumor in an eloquent area of the brain. [Click here for full report.]
6.) This latest chemotherapy treatment (Avastin + Enzastaurin) is the first time that a clinical trial has been performed on David. This is quite fortunate, saving so many dollars in the process. David happened to qualify for this last spot within the last 24 hours of time available, strictly based on White Blood Cell (WBC) counts. David got this spot with only 0.07 spots remaining on the WBC count meter.
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