Today was a bit of a mental rollercoaster; we anticipated getting results, but they were taking some time to arrive. Generally, longer response time meant bad news. So even though I felt that she would remain a stage 3 (no metastatic tumors), with every hour that passed, I (dad), couldn't help but wonder if they had found something and it was taking time to review it. Thankfully my intuition was correct and when we finally got the results this afternoon we learned that she has no metastatic disease (meaning it has not spread from her abdominal cavity). The CT scan picked up the existing residual tumor that we were aware of but showed no distant tumors. The MIBG scan showed nothing, which is reassuring but not conclusive. This means one of two things in regards to the residual tumors 1) Gabs is one of the 5-10% of kids whose tumors do not soak up MIBG and this test will be useless in the future or 2) Gabs residual tumor has matured to a benign tumor and she has no more neuroblastoma. This second option would be wonderful and is possible, but I do not think likely. Right now I am cautiously optimistic.
So what do we do next you ask? Good question. We will likely biopsy one of the masses to determine if neuroblastoma is present and if so, what type (aggressive or more benign). We will then consult with our docs to figure out treatment options. Overall, today's news was very enouraging, but we still need to decide what to do with these slow growing spots and determine if the new one (in the lymph nodes) is new disease or something else.
Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers! We deeply appreciate all of the support we have received and interest that everyone has been taking in our little girl.