Mill Valley man retains sunny outlook despite living with life-threatening skin cancer

At the beginning of next month, Anders Norlin of Mill Valley will have his body scanned to determine if the cancerous tumor in his abdomen has grown, shrunk or remained the same size ? a crucible he and his wife, Tes, endure twice a year.

"I live now six months at a time," said Norlin, a 55-year-old native of Sweden who emigrated to California in 1983.

Tes says they always leap up and hug each other in the doctor's office when the news is good.

"We're just so happy," she said. "But then it starts all over again, like the movie 'Groundhog Day.'"

Norlin, who operates his own business leasing used shipping containers, was diagnosed with stage two melanoma in 1995 and since then his cancer has advanced to stage four following the discovery of several new tumors.

Nevertheless, Norlin said, "I just feel that I've been very fortunate."

Norlin considers himself fortunate because he was selected to participate in a clinical study of a new drug, Zelboraf, that has so far held his cancer at bay for more than a year. Zelboraf neutralizes a genetic mutation that promotes the growth of the cancer and exists in about 50 percent of melanoma patients.

Norlin also feels lucky that nearly all of the annoying side-effects from the Zelboraf ? the swelling of his joints and a growth on his knuckles ? have disappeared since his doctors at the University of California, San Francisco,

began giving him another new experimental treatment, a MEK inhibitor.

"He's a rock, a real survivor," said Dr. Alain Algazi, an oncologist and skin cancer specialist in the Melanoma Center at the UCSF.

Algazi says Zelboraf, which was approved by the Food & Drug Administration to treat advanced melanoma in August, has been deemed clinically effective in half of patients treated with the drug; melanoma patients in the study saw their tumors decrease in size by 30 percent or more.

"Other patients had some minor shrinkage or their tumors didn't grow," Algazi said. "Researchers couldn't estimate the overall survival rate because too many people in the study were still alive and doing well with the drug."

Algazi said UCSF researchers are now following up with a clinical study of a MEK inhibitor, which they hope will block a secondary pathway that melanomas resort to when blocked by Zelboraf. He said the success with Zelboraf is a significant breakthrough.

"Before we didn't even know where to start," Algazi said. "Now with Zelboraf we have an important leg up."

According to the Melanoma Research Foundation, approximately 65 percent of melanomas are attributable to ultraviolet exposure from sunlight or artificial sources such as tanning beds. Norlin said he assumes overexposure to sunlight played a role in causing his skin cancer, although no doctor has ever told him so.

"When I first met Anders, he could sleep under the sun for hours," his wife said. "I would tell him, 'It's always sunny here. You don't have to go out every day.'"

Norlin said, "I come from a part of the world where we worship the sun because we have so little of it. We were brought up being told, 'You've got to go outside and be in the sun. It's good for you.'"

Norlin still enjoys his time outside, however. He can't run anymore ? earlier radiation treatments caused some nerve damage to his right leg; but he works out at the local playground daily, accompanied by his dog, and plays tennis. He says exercise helps relieve some of the stress of living with uncertainty.

"It's hard to not think about it and become irritated," he said.

Norlin said living with cancer for 15 years hasn't made him any more philosophical or religious. But it has made him realize the importance of reserving some time to spend with family and friends ? or maybe just to take a walk alone on a sunny day.

He said he has been surprised by the support he has received from members of his community.

"They want to help and they don't know what to do," Norlin said. "But just saying, 'I'm there to help you,' is enough."

Contact Richard Halstead via e-mail at rhalstead@marinij.com

Source: http://www.marinij.com/millvalley/ci_19604099?source=rss_viewed

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