Late February, after having stopped Taf/Mek for several weeks to see if Keytruda had finally kicked in, I had a 2.7cm tumor pop up in the brain along with five or six sub-centimeter tumors. I immediately stopped Keytruda and re-started Taf/Mek. A series of delays resulted in my having brain surgery April sixteenth. The preop scan indicated the large tumor was 2.3cm and did not mention any other tumors (it was not comparative and was performed at a different facility than the February 27th scan.) post op scan mentioned no tumors. I asked my neurosurgeon if I would be scheduled for gamma knife (standard protocol with him for surgical site "clean up"). He said he wanted to wait for one more set of scans in two months to decide. I felt I was being turned into a test case but I was not concerned as I was back on my wonder drugs. Even if my neurosurgeon did not believe Taf/Mek could work in the brain, I did so I wasn't worried about putting off gamma knife. I was hoping it might even not be necessary. I had a fresh brain scan at a different facility but one I've used before this past Monday the 18th and gave them a CD copy of my February 27th scan for comparison. Of course my neurosurgeon was on vacation all week but I had requested a copy be mailed to me. I received it yesterday and the report noted no evidence of disease. They listed every tumor from the February report as resolved (except for one resected). So my brain is NED. I'll find out about the rest of me in a couple of weeks. So for those folks that have the BRAF mutation that are responders to Taf/Mek, my experience is that it works in the brain too.
Cheers!
Maggie
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