Chelsea in Bloom

This morning we got the train to Victoria and then a short taxi ride to go to the Royal Marsden Hospital. The Royal Marsden Hospital is a hospital that only treats cancer patients, and was the first hospital in the world dedicated to the study and treatment of cancer. There are two main sites, the main one in Chelsea, London and another in Sutton.

Prof Jones the oncologist who is taking on Gavin's case is a delightful man. He specialises in sarcomas and is head of the sarcoma unit at the Royal Marsden. He explained that Gavin was extremely lucky to have the best sarcoma surgeon who successfully removed all the tumour, which is a very positive outcome. Gavin's cancer is ridiculously rare - of all the cancers in the world only 1% are soft tissue sarcomas, and of that 1%, only 1% are Solitary Fibrous Tumours (SFT). This type of cancer was only identified as a separate type of cancer 10 years ago by a Prof in Canada and the markers he established are used today to identify it. As it's a high grade cancer - they seem to speak in levels of grade rather than stages - it most likely will come back, and it can come back anywhere. There is a very small outside chance it does not come back, but that is very small. The treatment plan is to have CT scans every 3 months, and if it does come back then he is keen to use a clinical trial whereby the proteins in this type of cancer are specifically targeted - he gave us the medical terms which I don't remember all the names of, but it will be covered in his report which we will receive. Failing that there is a clinical team in Essen, Germany, that have had good success on these SFTs with a certain kind of radiotherapy. Every case is different when they are this rare so it's no use googling stuff on it as it differs from person to person. 

We asked him about factors that can affect cancer, and apart from the obvious ones of smoking and being overweight, he said to eat things in moderation and avoid processed meats, not that we eat things like sausages and bacon. The studies linking processed meats to cancer and other things like heart disease are clear.

He totally endorsed going to see Adam in San Diego which he says is the best place to live, he queried why we are only going for a week and said we should go for much longer!

We also met the specialist nurses and we given contact numbers in case of an emergency which made me sigh in relief.

Feeling positive we walked back to the station, observing the beautiful floral decorations for the annual display of Chelsea in Bloom - this year the theme is Flowers in Fashion. 

Tonight I have my final camera club meeting of the season, it is our AGM so as secretary I have to take minutes and record the nominations for the next year's officers. All that remains is our annual exhibition which starts on 3 June.