Ben Brewer's Blog

As most of you have heard, we got good news from Doctor Kramer on our first visit to Sloan-Kettering a week ago. She told us that she thinks that Ben is curable, but we still have a lot of treatment to go. It’s almost surreal how long this has been and how much longer Ben has to go, but at least now we see a light at the end of the tunnel, even if it is months away.

Our next steps are surgery on March 8th with Dr. Laquaglia, whom we’ve heard is the best pediatric cancer surgeon in the world. Not to slight any other surgeons, but this type of thing is Dr. Laquaglia’s specialty. The reason for the surgery, you might be wondering, is because the CT scan showed something in the area where the tumor originally surfaced. They’re not sure what, but they need to go in to check it out. Due to this, Ben had a low-dose round of chemo last week of Irinotecan and Timidor, to prevent any spreading of the possible tumor.

After recovery from surgery it’s yet another round of high-dose chemo to prevent him from HAMA-ing out. Since the antibody he’ll be receiving is straight from a mouse, his own antibodies can turn against the mouse antibodies. Hence this: Human Anti-Mouse Antibodies. We fully expect Ben to be back in the hospital after this round with mucositis and other nastiness, which won’t be fun for him.
When he’s recovered enough it’s back to Sloan to start the 3F8 therapy, which again, will be for at least for rounds.

So, it looks like we might (fingers crossed) be finished with treatment in July-ish, if all go’s well.

If you’re inclined, hit up the link for donating to Ben’s Fund. Flying to New York every month and the other stuff that goes with treatment isn’t cheap. If you’re not, please say a prayer for Ben that he finally makes it to that light at the end of the tunnel.
Love,
The Brewers