Thought I'd update you on where I am at with my CLL. Sadly it has advanced rapidly. Not just a big increase in node size but my bone marrow is involved with the cells to the point where my peripheral WBC is at 56K and I have low red cells and platelets. I have to wonder about my bad luck because you may recall I could not qualify for a great trial with the up and coming oral med, Revlimid, in the spring because my nodes were not big enough. This time as my nodes increased and the leukemia came back I tried to get in the trial again but I found out this past Wednesday that my platelets were too low to go on the trial! Oh well instead I am to get what we knew was Plan B (but could just as easily been Plan A) - a well established chemo drug called Treanda along with the usual monoclonal antibody Rituximab. (a similar cocktail-- Fludarabine/Rituxan-- has worked well twice in the last 5 years, we are just switching out the chemo drug). I will get 28 day cycles up to 6, starting next week. So I have high hopes...
Instead of posting a semi-scholarly review of Revlimid in CLL (I had downloaded almost 20 articles covering clinical trial results and possible mechanisms of action as well as experts view of how Revlimid could fit in to the CLL armamentarium)...look in coming days for a similar analysis of Treanda (bendamustine)
