Pathology Results
This morning we met with Becca’s oncologist for pathology results and future treatment/observation plan. The bone marrow came back clean: no evidence of cancer in her bones. The tumor itself, removed in Friday’s surgery, was differentiated: mostly benign (ganglioneuroma), with pockets of malignancy (neuroblastoma). The cancer is classified as Stage 1. So this is good news.

[Update: Today we heard back that there is no N-myc amplification – good news as well.]

Prognosis and Plan
Becca’s prognosis looks good; since the tumor was completely removed, Becca requires observation (MRI’s) but no further treatment (chemotherapy, radiation, etc). In 3 weeks Becca will go in for another MRI, then again after 2 more months. After that she’ll get an MRI every 3 months, indefinitely. [If N-myc had been amplified in the range of 6-10x, the oncologist would have done mIBG scans in addition to the MRI’s.]

Surgery Recovery
Becca’s doing great from her surgery. After we got home, she would only take her pain medication a few times. She’s sleeping on her tummy again, and she’s doing all her normal activities, except when we tell her to slow down.

We’re encouraged by the news we got today, and again we thank the Lord for giving us grace during this time and guarding Becca from anything more serious. Thank you all for your concern and prayers. (Do please pray for Amy, who has a bad cold, probably as a result of inadequate rest over the weekend.) When we hear about the N-myc results, we’ll update you on that.

Josh & Amy

More on N-myc Amplification
(The following is a layman’s explanation of N-myc amplification that we received from a radiologist friend. It’s clearer than what I read online, so I’m sharing it here.)

N-myc is a normal gene in our DNA which plays an important role is normal cell division. Other genes play the opposite role, namely inhibiting cell division. Normally there is a healthy balance. Some cancers are characterized by mutations that prevent certain genes from doing their normal function of inhibiting cell division, thus facilitating uncontrolled cell division.

In the case of neuroblastoma, the N-myc gene may be amplified. This means that there are very many copies of the same gene, which has the effect of overstimulating cell division. This is obviously not a good situation. Not all neuroblastoma cases have this. Prognosis is more favorable if there is no n-myc amplification.