Doctors on Monday night were reviewing tests that should tell them if Pittsburgh Mayor Bob O'Connor is making progress in his battle against brain cancer.
The results of an MRI and a PET scan, both performed yesterday, should be available today, doctors said in a statement. The results should provide answers as to why O'Connor experienced fluid retention in his brain last week.
O'Connor, 61, has spent the last eight days in the neuro intensive care unit at UPMC Shadyside after surgeons on Aug. 6 placed a catheter into his brain to drain the fluid. He was in stable condition yesterday, the statement said.
Mayoral spokesman Dick Skrinjar said he visited O'Connor in the morning and the mayor was sitting up and eating cereal.
O'Connor is being treated for primary central nervous system lymphoma. A prior MRI, performed last month, showed O'Connor's four tumors are shrinking and responding to high doses of the chemotherapy agent methotrexate.
O'Connor last week received his third treatment with the drug. The tests performed yesterday should tell doctors whether the tumors have shrunk further or if they continue to grow.
O'Connor continues to regain his strength, the doctors said in the statement.
