More puzzled by her symptoms than alarmed — this nausea came without any
aura of pain — she saw her internist. She was given a diagnosis of
gastroenteritis and sent home to bed rest and Gatorade.
But the nausea persisted, and then additional symptoms appeared out of nowhere. Ghostly fevers came and went. She felt perpetually full, as if she had just finished a large meal. Three weeks later, she returned to the hospital, demanding additional tests. This time, a CT scan revealed a nine-centimeter solid mass pushing into her stomach. Once biopsied, the mass was revealed to be a tumor, with oblong, spindle-shaped cells dividing rapidly. It was characterized as a rare kind of cancer called a gastrointestinal stromal tumor, or GIST.
A surgical cure was impossible: her tumor had metastasized to her liver, lymph nodes and spleen. Her doctors halfheartedly tried some chemotherapy, but nothing worked. “I signed my letters, paid my bills and made my will,” the patient recalled. “I was told to go home to die.”
To read the full, original article click on this link: The Riddle of Cancer Relapse - NYTimes.com
Author: SIDDHARTHA MUKHERJEE
