My father was diagnosed with stage 4 Melanoma (primary unknown) in March 2015 with lung, bowel and lymph node metastases at the age of 59. He had a very large tumour burden with multiple huge (up to 8cm) tumours and had a bowel perforation prior to starting treatment. There were no treatment options available for him in Canada so we brought him to MD Anderson for an opinion.
He was started on Keytruda in March 2015 and had a near complete response. He did have an inital scan immediately after starting treatment that looked like progression but this turned out to be pseudoprogression as subsequent scans showed a dramatic reduction in the size of all of his tumours. Once his CTs stabelized, he underwent a PET scan that showed that he had just one tumour that was still active. This one tumour remained active on PET for 6 months so we decided to remove it in case it was a resistant piece of melanoma.
He just underwent surgery at MD Anderson last week to remove this piece of tumour. The final pathology report is back and there was no melanoma in the tumour, just inflammatory cells. He had a complete response to Keytruda!!
I am posting this to let those of you out there know that there is hope despite a large tumour burden. My was extremely sick in March of 2015 (details in previous posts). Positive stories on this forum kept our family going so we are hoping to pass along the good news.
All the best to everyone.
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