4/25 - Dr. Kaseb Consult

Rae Nell, Jane and I met with Dr. Kaseb today. Good news.  They are not going to start poisoning me today.  The drug that they want to start me on, Avastin, has the serious side effect of causing high blood pressure and bleeding.   As Dr. Raj found and fixed some varices from the EGD procedure last week, Dr Kaseb wants to repeat the EGD to be sure that the current issue was resolved by the banding and that nothing else has developed in the meantime before starting the Avastin.  Kaseb said he is cautious about Avastin and "bleeding could be bad, like fatal".

I claimed that the research I had done on Avastin was not positive nor was did it show much effectiveness for liver cancer.   The nurses response was that they use Avastin for a number of cancers and the side effects  are very mild and tolerable.  Dr. Kaseb's response was, his previous studies and at least one other parallel study using Avastin have shown promise.  He believes this will extend my life without making me sick as I with NEXAVAR. 

So in summary,  I glad we are not starting today and I will try to find and read the study results that Dr. Kaseb referred to in the meantime.