Willamette Valley – Providence - ?: Had an appointment with my oncologist early Monday afternoon. I was scheduled to begin another round of chemotherapy Tuesday, but his advice was to continue to pursue a path that would lead to a clinical trial involving immunotherapy. Treating my cancer in the traditional ways (i.e., chemo, mostly) would give me another one to three years at best, in his opinion, and he thinks that another therapy would be my best chance at getting the tumors under control. I agreed. I wasn't looking forward to more controlled poisoning and its myriad side effects, and the doc's attitude was that this was my window of opportunity to seek another type of treatment, given how well I'm currently doing. 

Since the study in Portland seems to be out for the immediate future (they called late that afternoon to tell me that the open spots in the trial were filled), the center and I are starting to look for another trial elsewhere. Of course, Providence isn't completely ruled out (I was told by the clinical trial nurse that more spots were opening later this month, but we're trying to determine the likelihood of that happening…my doc seemed deeply frustrated with the folks at Providence for several reasons), but trying another research facility elsewhere might be the solution. 

More when there's progress to report.