A stable scan!

Jen's scan today was stable!  As I mentioned earlier, the Avastin only works for about 60% of patients with GBM.  Fortunately, Jen is in that group.  The scan is actually fairly dramatic in it's difference to all her previous ones.  The contrasting areas which are expressions of her tumors have largely disappeared.  How much is really a durable effect and how much is an illusion caused by the way Avastin works the doctors can't really say.  The tumors are definitely still there, but they hide their presence a little.  Fortunately there are other signs the doctors can use to track their progress.  Avastin works for an average (for those that the drug works for) of about 6 months.  As always, some patients see less time, and some more - some outliers see years.  Hopefully Jen will have a long progression free period on Avastin.  Her doctor also checked for any signs of strokes from the Avastin and found nothing detectable.  This along with a brain hemorrhage remain the largest severe risk and affect about 1% of patients.  This can happen at any time while on the drug, so we and her doctors will have to keep an eye out for that as well.  Jen's next Avastin infusion is this coming Monday and her next scan will be in 6 weeks from today.