It's not a GBM!

When you have brain cancer, Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) is not the kind you want. It's the worst and least survivable. The Glial cells (to be gross) are the maintenance workers of your brain, they keep things clean, help your neurons do their jobs, etc. They also tend to be the ones that turn into tumors. Astrocytes look like stars (thus the name), and lead to astrocytomas (grade 4 of which is the GBM) when they go bad.

I found out yesterday that my tumor does not look like an astrocytoma, which was very good news. There's still some slow pathology work to be done (which is ongoing), but I have, most likely, a low-grade oligodendroglioma. People live with these for decades with treatment. They have started the genetic workup looking for the 1p/19q chromosomal co-deletions which could be indicative of my disease and possible treatment path. If it stays grade 2, then radiation therapy is out, and I will likely do chemo only. If they find really weird genetic stuff, then some sort of customized viral therapy might be possible. We could make a virus that could force my immune system to attack my tumor directly. This was all very good news to get yesterday. We are keeping our fingers crossed for this to stay a low-grade Oligodendroglioma (2 not 3!, think golf scores here!).