Last November, and again this month, I had CT scans, and it turns out my cancer (Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma) has been growing. (If you haven’t known me for long and didn’t know I have cancer, the timeline and in particular the video might be a useful introduction.) I now have lumps of significant size – 2cm or larger – in both of my lungs and in my liver. It has also spread to the space between the lung and the chest wall. It normally doesn’t cause much bother there, but it can bind the lung to the wall and cause breathing pain.

For the last 14 years, we have been following primarily a surgical management strategy. To this end, I have had approximately 5 neck operations, 2 mouth operations, 2 lung operations, and had half my liver, my gall bladder and my left kidney removed. Documentation about many of these events is available on this blog, linked from the timeline. Given that I’m still here and still pretty much symptom-free, I feel this strategy has served me rather well. God is good.

However, it’s now time for a change of tack. The main lump in my left lung surrounds the pulmonary artery, and the one in my liver is close to the hepatic portal vein. Surgery on these might be risky. So instead, the plan is to wait until one of them starts causing actual symptoms, and to apply targetted radiotherapy to shrink it. Because my cancer is “indolent” (a.k.a. “lazy”), it can have periods of activity and periods of inactivity. While it seems more active at the moment, that could stop at any time, or it could progress differently in different places.

There is no general chemotherapy for ACC. However, at my last consultation I was asked to take part in a clinical trial of a new and interesting therapeutic technique, of which more very soon.

A friend texted me a word of encouragement this morning, and said he and his family had been reading Psalm 103. It’s a timely reminder of the true nature of things:

The life of mortals is like grass,
    they flourish like a flower of the field;
the wind blows over it and it is gone,
    and its place remembers it no more.
But from everlasting to everlasting
    the Lord’s love is with those who fear him,
    and his righteousness with their children’s children –
with those who keep his covenant
    and remember to obey his precepts.

— Psalm 103:15-18