My first test result showed 103.9% . Is this high ? I am away for 3 weeks and so have no papers. I was told by phone that my second result is 16.7 %. Is this good progress ?
I remember that the first test was calculated as 75000 divided by 72000 approx giving 103.9%. The second test was calculated 9300 divided by 57700 giving the 16.7%. Does anyone know the name of the 72000 and 57700 base blood item ? Is it normal that is has sunk from 72000 to 57700 ?
I would be grateful for any comments.
Hi Dean,
103.9% is bang-on average, in a sense. 100% was arrived at as a baseline as an average PCR result of patients on the IRIS clinical trial for imatinib some years back. Many people are diagnosed with much lower PCRs and it’s quite possible to have PCRs of over 300% at diagnosis too.
I don’t know how long it was between your first and second tests, but achieving 10% by 3 months is by most counts considered an optimal result. If your second result was from 3 months, it is still very good as it is very close to that 10% figure.
The 72000 and 57700 counts are the counts of the control gene in your PCR test. This was probably the Abelson gene (that’s the “Abl” in BCR-Abl). So the test is counting a ratio of BCR-Abl to Abl.
I hope that makes sense, but let me know if you’d like more explanation on any of it.
David.
Absent diagnosis date the date of the 2 tests and the medicine and dose you are on, it's hard to say for sure. But the drop in transcripts is very good assuming these are your first 2 tests and they are a month apart. I went from 100% (IS) to 22% in my first 30 days and went on to hit MMR in 90 days.
