Newest Info on Ben

We went in for Ben's appointment yesterday with his Oncologist Dr. Jennie Crews. She has helped open up a new cancer center in Washington and it is very nice, a LOT nicer than Washingtons' hospital! She seemed very knowledgable and professional. Everyone who worked with her praised her highly. She graduated from Duke and works with the people there also. We were considering going to Duke if things didn't look good. She answered all of our questions and more, and even said if we wanted a second opinion she'd be happy to refer us. Anyway, she first thing told us was that the CT Scan was fine. It didn't show anything, but it doesn't show things on the skin very well, or in the bones. His cancer is a very rare type. Diffuse large cell lymphoma (B cell). Diffuse means that the cells aren't really close together, rather in sheets (diffuse). It doesn't usually present itself on the skin. Lymphocytes are white blood cells, they are everywhere in the body, mostly in the lymph nodes, spleen, bone marrow (made there), but also in the skin. Lymphoma is where instead of dying, the cell mutates and becomes bad. A pathologist came in and took a sample from another lump he had on his sternum, then went over to the hospital lab and called back, saying there were a few lymphocytes present (but again, these are everywhere), so the results were inconclusive, yet he thought this was just a cyst since he took some clear fluid from it also. Ben is scheduled to have a bone marrow biopsy tomorrow morning, to see if there is cancer in the marrow, and he will have a PET Scan Fri. morning in Greenville. A PET Scan is: Positron Emission Tomography. "PET can help physicians effectively pinpoint the source of cancer. This is possible because many cancer cells are highly metabolic and therefore synthesize the radioactive glucose (sugar) that is injected in the patient prior to the exam. The areas of high glucose uptake are dramatically displayed in the scan imagery, as opposed to the anatomical imagery of CT or MRI, which cannot detect active, viable tumors." (taken from- http://www.petscaninfo.com/zportal/portals/pat/pet_for/cancer ). After these tests are through, he will see her again on July 6th. We are hoping that we caught things early and he won't have to go through chemo. If that is the case, they will surgically remove the cancerous area and then do radiation treatment in the area 5 times a week for 3 weeks. If he has to have chemo, (they call it CHOP-R) the schedule would be once every 3 weeks for 6 months.