Modestly Good News

Tuesday, December 29, 2015: Results: My new treatment regimen is three weeks old now, and my blood is being checked every week at Mayo Clinic (182-mile round trip).  For the first two weeks the myeloma markers went up - the treatment didn't seem to be working at all.  Nevertheless, Dr WG and I agreed  that I would continue on the study for the first eight weeks, then get the scheduled PET scan to get the best possible information about the state of my myeloma. However (Yay!), my primary myeloma markers went down a bit at the end of this third week.  IgG dropped 12% from 1520 to 1350 mg/dL, and M-spike dropped 7% from 1.4 to 1.3.  These are not big changes, but they go the same direction and therefore are probably real.  I guess we'll find out for sure next week, and the week after, ... One factor that confuses the measurements a bit is the slow decay of IgG, which has a half life of two to three weeks in the blood stream.  This means that even if the treatment does kill some of the myeloma cells that are spewing out the monoclonal IgG, that IgG stays around for a while to screw up the measurements. Infusions: It's hard to believe, but after more than 12 years with myeloma, I had my very first infusion just three weeks ago as part of the current trial.  I had another today. At Mayo in Rochester, Gonda Building tenth floor, you are brought into a cute little private room (one of many) with a very fancy lounge chair, a TV & rem...
Source: Myeloma Hope - Category: Cancer & Oncology Source Type: blogs