Re: Jen-- how is Ewok doing?--Another tumor

[Lernermichelle]

I'm sorry, Jen! That's horrible.  Josephine did get tumors in her intestines secondary to  tumors on her kidneys, and she lived a couple months with them just getting those shots, without even any chemo.  The dex would visibly shrink the tumor within just a few hours.  The day that the shot did not do that or make her start eating, I knew it was the end, and she went into respiratory distress a few hours later.   You can also ask the oncologist about CCNU.  It is a chemo drug that they use when cats come out of remission from the other chemo agents.  It is synthetic, so cats get resistant to it more slowly.  When the dex/depo shot got Simon to the point he could get more chemo, he got CCNU.  That and the shots are what made him feel so great for the month.  A few weeks after getting the CCNU, when his blood work showed him near remission again, he got Adriamycin for the first time, and a week later had a sudden auto-immune reaction and killed all his red blood cells and died.  I do not know if it was a reaction to the cancer or to the Adriamycin.  But I do know that the dex/depo shots and the CCNU worked wonders on the cancer together, and I wished afterwards that the oncologist had given him CCNU again rather than Adriamycin (though he insisted the auto-immune response was to the cancer and would have happened anyway).  I read that about 50% of cats who have come out of remission go back into remission from CCNU, I think.  I also do not think it is as harsh on the system as Adriamycin.   I think that Belinda's Buddie, who had intestinal lymphoma I think (not sure), did well on CCNU also. But I think she had the small cell slow-growing kind of lymphoma, which is different than what Ewok has.   Jen, I think there is little hope that Ewok is going to be cured of this.  But I do think there is hope that might be able to feel well for another few weeks or months, and that there is some chance that with stronger steroids and something like CCNU he could go into remission, and a smaller chance that the remission could last a year or more as has happened in some cases.  I would not expect this to happen, because I do not think it is the norm with positive cats, but I do not think you are expecting it. But I would certainly hope and pray for it at this point (and I am hoping and praying for it), because it could and has happened.   Michelle   In a message dated 12/16/2005 3:15:53 P.M. Eastern Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Damn!  I should have checked my email before I left...thanks for that, Michelle...I'm going to keep that one in mind!  Ewok and I just got back from the oncologist's and it's as we all pretty much expected: a mass in his intestines (a lymph node I believe, but I'm so tired I can't think straight right now...).  So he was actually given a round of elspar to see if the tumor responds...I guess we'll know in the next 24-48 hours. Please continue to send out those healing vibes! Jen