Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Halfway through 6 cycles of Treanda/Rituxan

So my lymph nodes everywhere are at least half the size they were before treatment, my WBC total is down to 17K from over 70K, and my platelets have rebounded from treatment-related low of 20K to close to where I started. On the downside I had the one hospitalization for fever with borderline neutropenia, 1 platelet transfusion, and 4 PRBC transfusions. Still have anemia, last Hb 7.1 but getting weekly Epogen. Hope to tolerate the drugs better in the next 3 cycles, with the help of pretreatment Decadron and post-treatment Neulasta. Even more I hope for normalization of my lymphocyte count and continued shrinkage of nodes. Will I get a prolonged remission? Should i consider a second opinion at U Penn, should I look into a maintenance trial if available? Time will tell....

Sunday, January 1, 2012

O'Brien on oral tyrosine kinase inhibitors

Dr. Susan O'Brien on kinase inhibitors, interview with Andrew Schoor --

Bottom line:
CAL-101 (now known as GS-1101) and PCI-32765 have shown great results with little myelosuppression. Moving quickly to later phase trials as monotherapy or in combo with chemo and or immunotherapy. Dr O is excited, the FDA is excited as am I if and when my next relapse occurs.....