Immune Therapy Flare

Wednesday, February 3, 2016: PET Scan Results: Today was PET scan day.  I had once thought that the PET scan would show definitively whether or not the current regimen was working.  However I am currently on a study of immune therapy, and last week Dr WG prepared me for today by explaining that the current study medication could cause the PET scan hot spots to show a "flare."  That is the therapy, if it is working, could actually cause previously-existing hot spots to appear larger or more intense than they did in the PET scan of four months ago, because of inflammation caused by my own immune system currently attacking the myeloma.  He also told me, however, that if the therapy is working he wouldn't expect any additional hot spots to appear, beyond those already seen on the previous PET scan in October. Sure enough, the hot spots did flare!  I don't yet have numbers on how much they flared, but it was a lot, and he said that he would be very surprised indeed if the increase in size and intensity was due to an increase in tumor burden.  Two of the hot spots are in my spine, vertebrae T5 and T9, and he thought that I would certainly have back pain in those areas if the flare was due entirely to the tumor.  Indeed, I ran a marathon last Sunday (number 92) without feeling pain in my spine.  There is one additional hot spot, in another vertebra, but Dr WG believes that it was present in the previous PET scan, just not bright enough to b...
Source: Myeloma Hope - Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: blogs