Karen has Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma (ACC), a cancer that
originated in a salivary gland. According to Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma (ACC), has no known causes or links to smoking and alcohol consumption. The disease is
slightly more prevalent in women than men. Standard treatment for ACC involves
surgery followed by radiation. Currently, there are no drug therapies that have
been proven to be effective in a large portion of ACC patients.
When we asked Karen if she met
other ACC patients while at M.D. Anderson she replied:
We did not. ACC is a very rare cancer. When we researched online we
learned that most oncologists will never encounter an ACC patient in their
entire careers. Most of the rest will encounter it only once and almost never
will you find an oncologist who has encountered it twice.
When we arrived at M.D. Anderson, we learned there is only one radiologist who
does proton radiation (the one reason we chose to travel to MDA in Houston,
Texas). On our first meeting, we asked the oncologist if he had ever encountered
ACC. He said that not only had he encountered it, but he was getting ready to
publish a paper on his treatment for ACC.
We recognized this as a God-thing.
No comments:
Post a Comment