Bad News

Not 30 minutes after I posted my blog entry yesterday, Marilyn called me sobbing. Apparently, the surgical oncologist had to remove far more from my dad's scalp than he originally was planning. The mapping procedure that they did yesterday morning showed the lymph nodes where the cancer has spread to... and he went in deep to remove those lymph nodes. Dad and Marilyn were under the impression that this mapping procedure would show if the cancer had spread... now Marilyn realizes that the surgeon knew it had spread and this was done to show him exactly where.

He told Marilyn that my dad is going to have his back up against in a wall in making a decision on whether to procede with a clinical trial (one specifically in Houston, TX) or take a more traditional approach but the reality and that statistics are shocking and I'm reeling, trying to come to terms with what is happening.



I had not taken all of this very seriously until yesterday, as there is someone in my life that is 80 years old who was recently diagnosed (16 months ago) with Stage 4 melanoma and it had not spread to his lymph nodes, he had the tumor removed and is now cancer free and has a good prognosis. Now, I'm wandering if in fact he did have Stage 4 melanoma after all - because after doing some reading yesterday and today - you are only given the diagnosis of Stage 4 when it has indeed spread.

The surgeon yesterday really gave Marilyn a grim prognosis yesterday. The lymph nodes still have to be officially biopsied and those results should be back on Monday because he put a rush on it; however, he told Marilyn that he's been doing this many years and that she needed to be prepared for the worst.

These are the statistics for Stage 4 Melanoma when it has spread to the lymph nodes:

The five year survival rate is 14%.
The average survival time frame is 13 months.
The survival rate with the average clinical trial for Stage 4 Melanoma is 5%.

Please keep my dad in your thoughts and prayers.

LA