the details of treatment

Some of you reading this didn't know Zoe during her first round of treatment so I want to give a really brief summary about her type of tumor...

*Zoe has an optic glioma... these tumors are typically slow growing and benign.  Although Zoe's tumor is treated with chemotherapy, her tumor is NOT going to spread throughout her body.  She has a brain tumor NOT brain cancer.

*Although the tumor growth since her last MRI six months ago has been "quite substantial" the tumor is still considered to be a low-grade glioma, rather than a more aggressive type of growth.

*Even though Zoe stopped chemo over three years ago, her tumor had still been hanging out in her pretty little head - but it had not been growing or causing her pain until now.

So basically what I am trying to say here is that Zoe is going to be just fine.  Unfortunately she has to endure treatment and she has to deal with the effects of her tumor (blindness in her eye) but she is a very normal, happy kid.  By looking at Zoe, you would have no idea that she experiences any health issues.

We are expecting that treatment this time should be much less intense - fingers crossed!  She will be given the drug Avastin once every two weeks and then every three weeks and possibly every four.  The downside is that this is a long-term treatment - she can remain on this treatment for two years if her body tolerates it and if the drug is effective.  Studies have shown that these tumors tend to grow again once Avastin is stopped.  So, basically this treatment is just a band-aid... it should soften/shrink the tumor and take away the pressure in her head so she doesn't have pain.  The goal of treatment is to delay surgery and buy time for additional treatment options.  (I will tell more about the reasoning to delay surgery in a future post).  It is challenging to think that we are just putting a temporary band-aid on something that we will have to deal with again, but this is the best option for now.