---

An update from Tim:Here are the last few Facebook posts I made on Laurie ' s behalf over the last few months. Apologies for everyone who is not on Facebook or connected with me by email.November 16I would like to let you all know how Laurie is doing and what is going on health wise with her.Over the last few weeks Laurie has been suffering from some cognitive issues that has limited her ability to post and comment here, As these issues got more serious her oncologist scheduled an MRI to try and find out the cause and to make a plan to deal with it. The MRI showed that there are new tumours in her brain. I have not read the formal radiology report but it appears that the new tumours are in the brain proper (where her original tumours were), and likely in the lining of the brain as well.What this means is that the intrathecal herceptin (and later methotrexate) treatment she has been receiving since June 2016 is no longer effective.The new treatment plan is to undergo whole brain radiation and to begin a course of chemotherapy with two new drugs. The whole brain radiation has started with four of the ten doses done. Laurie began taking lapatinib (Tykerb) and capecitabine (Xeloda) Tuesday. The lapatinib is a small enough molecule that it crosses the blood-brain barrier. These drugs are supposed to work well with the radiation therapy. The chemo is taken orally at home daily which limits hospital visits for which we are thankful. There will likely be side effects to both the ...
Source: Not just about cancer - Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: blogs