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Check-In with UCSF

I brought my Imaging scans back with me from Portland because I was seeing my oncologist in San Francisco today. He said:
  • The tumor is roughly golf-ball sized. 
  • It's grown about 5-10% since the trial began.
He does recommend that I go ahead with an MRI now. If there's a problem, and it got me kicked out of the trial, I would most likely be able to fall back on either the very-newly-approved Keytruda/Pembro/MK-3475 drug now (similar to the Nivolumab I'm getting in my current trial), or IPI (which I previously had in 2011 and likely had a good response to).

If I were to leave the trial, I could also consider radiation or surgery for the lymph node in addition to a drug.
  • Radiation might be a problem because the tumor is near the aorta (which sounds scary). 
  • Surgery would probably be quite doable. 
  • A tumor board (multi-displinary meeting of various specialists) would be needed to flesh out the alternatives better.
If the MRI is clear and everything else stays stable, he would recommend staying in the trial. 
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