Some good news, maybe. I saw Dr Porter at U Penn 10 days ago (have been remiss with timely posting). He thought my spleen was smaller, in fact hard to palpate and that some of my nodes were smaller. These findings along with a total WBC count of 7.3 led him to believe I was responding to ofatumumab.
On the other hand, my ongoing transfusion requirement (including the need for both platelets and red cells the next day after visit) are concerning. Dr Porter (and I) are worried about marrow dysplasia as a consequence of the fludarabine X3 and bendamustine. Copy of my records given to the Penn team showed my last bone marrow cytogenetics to be a bit screwy - a 13q- deletion (which is said to be good prognostic sign if present early and by itself but sadly I had other abnormalities including several cell lines with an extra X chromosome! Porter thought this was evidence for possible marrow damage and that he would like to do another marrow exam once off weekly ofatumumab to see how the marrow looks with some (hopefully!) control of leukemia. We shall see.
I continue to need weekly RBC transfusions and often biweekly platelets. My total WBC count was down to 5.4 three days ago, so my leukemia seems to continue to respond. Since I had two in-hospital ofatumumab infusions without reaction, my onco group is going to try to do the last two weekly infusions as an outpatient, with the next treatment in two days....crossing fingers, etc.
Crossing my fingers, too!
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