The Anxiety of Waiting to Meet My New Oncology Team

Not such a great title, but, the mental game of thinking about whats going on, thoughts of end of life coming way sooner than I ever hoped or planned for, wondering if I'm curable, all more suitable title topics.

The tumor on my liver where the biopsy was completed

Later today I head for Mass General Hospital's main campus in Boston to meet with Dr Jill Allen who will become my new lead oncologist.  On Monday I had a biopsy completed, which I wrote about here,   The biopsy was done first to verify whether or not the tumor was cancerous or not, and secondly, presuming it is, to identify the biomarkers of my cancer.  I am such an uneducated layman when it comes to all of this, but I'm trying to learn so at least I sort of have an understanding where the doctors and researchers are heading.  I found the article "Biomarkers in Cancer Immunotherapy" on the Cancer Research Institutes Web page helpful for me to understand what biomarkers are and how they are used to plan on future treatments, God willing.

A cousin also forwarded a TV News report that aired last February 2018 regarding a very successful immunotherapy trial in mice. I can't wait to hear what advances have been made in the past year. Check out the news story:


I have some anxiety, sleeplessness, worry, hope, and faith.  We can beat this, again.