"The baby, to a certain extent, has an immune system that is distinct from the mom," said Lynn M. Schuchter, an expert in melanoma at the University of Pennsylvania. "So it's possible if foreign cells arrive, the immune system can handle it."
Although pregnant women can handle chemotherapy, there is no good chemotherapy for melanoma, Schuchter said, and radiation would harm the fetus.
The situation is made even more difficult because there is also no way to tell with certainty if the melanoma has reached the placenta or the fetus, which Jason Torres saw on a sonogram Thursday, appearing healthy and kicking.
If his wife's body holds out until the fetus reaches its 25th week, the earliest point at which doctors believe a premature baby has a decent chance of survival, Torres is inclined to keep going.
"I think even if there's the chance, we'd want to go on as long as possible, because if you take the child early, you know there's going to be problems," he said the other day. "If you leave the child in the womb, there may be problems. That's not necessarily the medical view of it, but that's my view of it."
Down the road, there may be some novel insurance questions to consider, said Justin Torres, Jason's brother, who is handling much of the logistical details.
Susan Torres, who was a contract researcher with the National Institutes of Health, is the guarantor on the policy, which is with Strategic Resource Co., recently bought by Aetna. Although, technically, coverage lapses when the guarantor dies, Jason Torres is continuing to pay the premium.
"I think they're very generously cutting us a break," Justin Torres said of the insurer. "What will happen later" with the potential cost of neonatal care, for instance, "we don't know."
There have been moments over the past week when his brother regretted talking to the media, Justin Torres said. It is difficult for the family to hear the words "dead" and "brain dead" over and over. But they realized that they have traded privacy for the possibility of help.
And so on the 47th day, Jason Torres answered his cell phone, machines beeping in the background. "I'm kind of tired," he said from his wife's room. "I've been doing a lot of interviews, but for the most part, I'm just plodding along." Then he had to go, as another doctor walked in.
