“A Cancer Institute researcher thinks the most aggressive myeloma tumors may soon meet their match.” – UAMS
I’ve been really busy this week on a large scarf order where the yarn took way too long to come in and now I’m backed against a very hard deadline for a dear friend.
So I will keep this brief, but it is very exciting. Nick has already written about it and to understand the particular Myeloma patient’s presentation of his disease you should definitely go over and have a read there. Nick is very good at articulating the science.
Anyway, this is all very exciting, for all of us! As you know, Dr. Barlogie has been tackling the nuances of the High Risk presentations of Myeloma for a number of years. He feels like the Low Risk guys are a cake walk (don’t tell us that right?). In fairness, he has made great strides in Myelomaville on that score with a 15 year projected life expectancy with the new Total Therapy regimens and advent of novel therapies for post SCT maintenance therapies. But the High Risk guys have not been experiencing increased life expectancy. I would agree that if they can get these more challenging presentations understood and improving, it will benefit all of us.
So one of my dear friends in Arkansas who is HR and went out of remission is slated to be the first High Risk Myeloma patient to receive the new Natural Killer Cells therapy. It will start sometime next month and right now we are on pins and needles with both excitement and anxiousness. Anxious for so many reasons, but the most important thing right now is that he stays stable for the next few weeks as all this comes together. He is supposed to start on the new drug pomalidomide, but with the long Easter weekend, the approval from FDA has not yet occurred. (Update: FDA approved, drug is on it’s way!) So your prayers for him on this current, more pressing situation is appreciated, and he gets this drug overnighted this week.
As far as the NK cells, well, there is not much more to say. It’s exciting, it’s promising, it’s hopeful, it’s way OUT THERE. Programming cells? WOW!
For my friends, it’s very personal, of course. For Barlogie, well, it’s the culmination of a 30 year, tireless, career, trying to slay the beast. For the rest of us… we are all holding our breath. This is it right? RIGHT! This IS IT!
Rumor has it that they have had some success with Leukemia patients using this method. I’ll be sure to keep you posted as they move forward on how it’s all panning out. The Scoop on Dan received the vaccine therapy at MD Anderson’s trial after he received his Allo. I’m praying for that miracle too. Both of these research therapies have been being worked on for some time, both here and abroad.
Praying for B’s stabilazation until he can get this started…..excitement and HOPE here in Birmingham, Alabama from another HR caregiver!