Time To Celebrate!!
Posted Mar 20, 2012 6:58pm
Edit: REPOSTED FROM CAREPAGES
We found out over the weekend that there is enough protein in the cancer to make the vaccine.
I just returned from UCLA, where I had several appointments this morning. I had to give about 35 vials of blood to be tested to see if I still qualify for the vaccine. They also had to check my veins to see if they would be able to handle Leukapheresis (where they filter my white blood cells out of my blood and then put my blood back in my body, out one arm and back in the other). And then we saw Dr. Liau, my neurosurgeon. She gave us the report from the radiologist who read my MRI and he said there is no residual tumor left, the little bit we see is either swelling (since it was done only a few hours after my surgery) or scar tissue.
My next step is to go back next Tuesday to do the Leukapheresis. They will then "train" those white blood cells to fight the cancer and I will get my 1st injection of the vaccine about 2 weeks after this appointment and then 2 more with in 28 days from the 1st injection.
I will be the 1st patient in this part clinical trial, but the first part of this trial was done on people who have stage 4 brain cancer and Dr. Liau has said that some patients have lived 10 years, where they usually are given 18 months at the most. So this makes me very hopeful!
I will have MRI scans every 3 months from now on. My latest scan is posted on this site and you can see the hole where the tumor was!
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