Judy,
Greg's PCR in January of 2011 was .327. He was put on 50 mg of Sprycel end of March 2011. One month later April 29 2011 his PCR was 3.049. They attributed that to him being off medication for so long prior to starting Sprycel, dr was not surprised to see an increase. He upped the medication at that time to 70 mg. In July 2011 his level went down to .108 at his appointment in November the lab "forgot to run a PCR", was what they told us. Greg sees Dr Talpaz at University of Michigan, we really really like him so we don't fault him at all, things just happen I guess. They overnighted us a package to take to our local hospital, get blood drawn and overnighted back to them to run the PCR. The results from that came back at .135. End of March will be one year since on Sprycel. I have to be honest and say I wish his number was lower, 20 months after diagnosis I wanted him to be PCRU. He may never get there, from what I understand some people don't reach that stage. In the meantime, you asked about side effects, he really hasn't had anything severe, esp compared to what he experienced on Gleevec and Tasigna. He gets tired, everyone does. The worst thing he has is his stomach has gotten larger, looks like he's 9 months pregnant and just about every day he gets a headache. I can not say the headaches are from the drug, he is under a great amount of stress at work. In fact, we leave home around 7:30ish every morning for work and some days he doesn't get home until 6, 7, or 8 in the evening. Stress could be part of the cause of the headaches. His face and neck also turn red a lot, I think he could have high blood pressure, he's going to see his pcp soon for that. Overall, Sprycel has worked well for him.
I hope you have success on Sprycel without severe side effects. It's so unfortunate these drugs give side effects, but then again what drug doesn't???? Best wishes to you in your journey!
Audrey
