
Cancer, more than once?
#21
Posted 08 September 2017 - 05:18 PM
#22
Posted 08 September 2017 - 05:40 PM
#23
Posted 08 September 2017 - 06:19 PM
Another way of looking at it is that Things Fall Apart. No one expects a car to last 100 years. Your telomeres get worn to nubbins, and the sweater starts unraveling . . . pretty soon it's more holes than sweater. We're at a place in time now where we can get parts changed out (car metaphor) and holes patched (sweater metaphor). But sooner or (we hope, much) later it eventually all falls to pieces. After finishing the Mukharjee book (sp?) on cancer (The Emperor of All Maladies) I was pretty discouraged. The fix really seems to be in for cancer to always win, in the end. CML seems so far to be different. And yet . . .
Dx July 2009 on routine physical. WBC 94. Started Gleevec 400 mg Sept 2009. MMR at 2yrs. Side effects (malaise, depression/anxiety, fatigue, nausea, periorbital edema) never improved. Kidney issues developed because of Gleevec. Switched to Sprycel 70 mg in Aug 2011. Above side effects disappeared or improved. Have been MR3.5 - 4.5 ever since. Two untreated pleural effusions followed by one treated by stopping Sprycel Jan 2017. After 9 weeks, PCR showed loss of MMR; re-started Sprycel at 50 mg and in 3 months was back to <0.01% IS. Pleural effusion returned within a couple of months, same as before (moderate, left side only). Stopped Sprycel 50 mg for 12 weeks; pleural effusion resolved. At about a monthoff the drug, PCR was 0.03; at 11 weeks it was 2.06 - lost CCyR? Have returned to 50 mg Sprycel for 3 weeks, intending to reduce to 20 mg going forward.
#24
Posted 08 September 2017 - 06:25 PM
sorry for the double post.
I'm new at this.
#25
Posted 08 September 2017 - 06:45 PM
1 user(s) are reading this topic
0 members, 1 guests, 0 anonymous users