Lady Luck

Thanks to a biochemotherapy clinical trial treatment I did in the fall of 2003, I’m still above ground, although often stuck in deep sand traps, and showing no evidence of disease. My doc (f/k/a “Dr. Death”) told me not long ago that there’s a “good chance” at this point that my melanoma is “gone for good”. And I’m counting on it. But if my luck runs out and I experience a recurrence, it’ll happen in a new world of treatment options that simply didn’t exist in 2003.


And there’s more good news coming out of the recently concluded annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. (You’d think they’d invite a famous blogger like me to attend and perform a few numbers during a cocktail reception but, lucky for meeting attendees, they didn’t.) According to a study published this week in The New England Journal of Medicine, there’s a new weapon in the arsenal called trametinib, which inhibits proteins called MEK1 and MEK2 that are activated in tumor cells, and it is extending the lives of metastatic melanoma patients who are “lucky” enough to have a specific genetic mutation present in their tumors. And there seems to be a lot of excitement about using this and other new drugs, like ipilimumab and vemurafenib, in combination.

Read all about it at http://bostonglobe.com/business/2012/06/03/conference-highlights-new-progress-against-skin-cancer/6fmoy4NPm3tKcLYij1mCqN/story.html.

I’ll leave you with The Hotel Melanoma rendition of the Eagles’ “Ol’ 55”…



Well, my time went so quickly
I’ve lived lickety-splitly out to my old fifty-nine
As I try to live slowly, healin’s so holy,
God knows I am feelin' alive
And now more fun’s comin' up
I'm ridin' with Lady Luck
Leeway years from drugs

Scars beginning to fade, and I plead for old age
Just a wishin' I'll stay a little longer
Lord, don't you know the feelin's gettin' stronger

Hitch in the mole thing, gave me no warnin'
I had to be drugged for days
Now the pars are all passin' me,
Putts are all hasslin’ me
I've found a home in this place

And now more fun's comin' up
I'm ridin' with Lady Luck
Leeway years from drugs

Scars beginning to fade, and I plead for old age
Just a wishin' I'll stay a little longer
Lord, don't you know, the feelin's gettin' stronger

Well, my time went too quickly
I’ve lived lickety-splitly out to my old fifty-nine
As I try to live slowly, healin’s so holy,
God knows I am feelin' alive
And now more fun’s comin' up, 
I'm ridin' with Lady Luck
Leeway years from drugs
Leeway years from drugs,
I'm ridin' with Lady Luck
Leeway years from drugs
I'm ridin' with Lady Luck