The news -
The cancer is only in Chris' chest/throat area. It is not in his spinal fluid or bone marrow which is very good news. He has lymphoblastic lymphoma not acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The distinction between the two is arbitrary - they have basically the same treatment plan. One is cancer of the lymph nodes (what he has) and the other is cancer of the blood & bone marrow (leukemia).
His cancer is classified at about a stage II since it is only in his chest. This is also good because what I read is that usually lymphoblastic lymphoma isn't caught until it's stage IV.
Chris will be on a 3 week cycle of chemo for the next 5-6 months and after that he will need maintenance chemo for 2-3 years.
He'll start next week with a 5 day stay in the hospital and then need to go back every 3 weeks for 2-3 days in hospital for the chemo treatments during the initial 5-6 month period.
While he still has a tough road ahead of him it is very good news that it is only in his chest.
When I go with him to the hospital on Monday morning they will give me more details about his treatment schedule like when he'll take what drugs. I have the drugs "hyper-CVAD" and "MTX" and "Ara-C" written in my notes from what he told me.
He will have to get spinal taps done twice every 3 weeks to make sure the cancer isn't spreading.
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