Well ... it's been 4 weeks without taking any drugs (Sprycel) and my CBC's are:
WBC: 1.8
ANC: 0.33
PLT: 185
RBC: 3.41 (lower than last week by a small amount)
HGB: 11.6
HCT: 34.2
The Oncologists are curious and may order a FISH/PCR to see what's going on. It's interesting that when I was on Gleevec it put me into myelosuppression after 4 months and when I went off Gleevec, my platelets jumped within days to over 800. After my counts recovered (only took a few weeks to get much higher numbers than I have now) I went on Spyrcel and after only two weeks (low dose also) - my cell numbers plummeted again and my PCR kept falling also. Now, after 4 weeks of no Sprycel, my counts are still slowly rising with platelets not spiking.
I may be a candidate for a natural remission study (wouldn't that be nice). I may be allowed to stay off TKI and my blood more closely monitored to see if it levels off in the normal range. Normally, they would put me back on Sprycel when ANC reaches 1.0 - but this time, they may let it continue to rise above 2.0 (which is the lower end of normal) and see what happens (and at the same time measure PCR/FISH).
What a strange course of events.
No worries, Trey - I know I have CML - but these numbers are interesting. I just wonder what is going on in my body that has caused the CML to go quiet after Sprycel but not go quiet after Gleevec. The mild anemia, I was told is a consequence of the relative long life of red blood cells. My myeloid line is only slowly coming back (the slowness is indicative of a normal system recovering from 'trauma').
By the way, Cherylannes, I asked about pegylated interferon and the doc's said that it could be myelosuppressive to me right now (Dr. Cortes) - but he didn't rule it out for later.