Biopsy report

Hello

first – I know you’re processing a lot   I’m newly diagnosed too.  Take a deep breath and know that melanoma treatment has made amazing progress in the past few years and it continues to advance. Be careful of searching for survival rates in the internet because they may not reflect the newest treatments  

you need to see an oncologist who specializes in melanoma.  I don’t know Florida cancer treatment centers.  Who recommended Moffett?  Is it someone you trust?

I would think you need a PET scan and brain MRI, and a sentinel lymph node biopsy, plus surgery to remove the primary. While your doing that at Moffett, maybe find a second opinion place such as MD Anderson, Sloan Kettering or even Melanoma WorkingGroup at Emory in Atlanta (closer to you). 

There are also second opinion options with companies such as ‘Grand Rounds’ who can give you ratings of doctors and treatment centers in your area, and can take the scans, etc. performed at your treatment center and have another doctor review the suggested treatment plan. 

Best of luck to you.  L

Hello!

I am new to this site also. My husband has Desmoplastic Melanoma – a very rare subtype of Melanoma. We are in Orlando and could not find any oncologists here that had any experience with this Melanoma. We ended up going to Moffitt because they do. They are very active with clinical trials and ha w some amazing doctors. We have been seeing Dr. Grossman but he is getting ready to move to Utah so we will be transferring to Dr. Eroglu. 

Melanoma treatment has come a long way in the last several years! 

Please let me know if I can answer any further questions for you about Moffitt. 

Tania

p.s. I have been trying to post my intro on this board for the last several days and keep getting an error message. Can anyone help me??

Hi Melan,

Sorry you are dealing with this.  You are probably looking a WLE (wide local excision) around the site of your lesion as well as a sentinel node biopsy of the first node a tracer element reaches when injected at the site of your now removed lesions.  As I'm sure all this sounds like a foreign language, I will share a primer I put together that may help if you are interested:

https://chaoticallypreciselifeloveandmelanoma.blogspot.com/2017/08/melanoma-intel-primer-for-current.html  

The treatments noted are more for Stage III/IV patients than your current position and I hope it stays that way!!  However, it will help you get used to the language and there is a link to common melanoma acronyms at the bottom.

I am sorry you need their services, but I agree with Tania's recommendation of Moffitt.  I traveled there from Chattanooga, TN for over 3 years, starting in 2010, when I participated in a Phase 1 clinical trial with nivolumab, now called Opdivo, for Stage IV melanoma.  The service and expertise were essential.  Now, adequate melanoma services are much more prevalent in local offices and hospitals as some immunotherapy and targeted therapy drugs for melanoma began to gain FDA approval in 2011.  Still, getting a start at Moffitt is probably well advised…and then you can go from there.

Perhaps the best news….despite being Stage IV with brain and lung mets in 2010, I am still here and remain NED (no evidence of disease) for melanoma with no further treatment since my nivo trial!  There is hope.  Hang in there, all of you.  Yours, celeste