I have recently had my 18 month PCR results. My consultant phoned them to me a few days ago and said that the news is good because they showed, in his words "8000 good cells and no bad ones". This was a welcome surprise because previously I had been stuck at roundabout 0.3% ph+ for quite a while. I don't actually go to see my consultant for another month or so and my question is this. As he didn't express the results in terms of % ph+ (and I forgot to ask) I am not sure if this qualifies as molecular remission or not. Could someone please advise?
Thanks in anticipation.
Colin.
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Is this molecular remission?
Hi Colin,
mmmm, as your doctor described the results this time in a different way... i.e by using cells good and bad to describe a PCR test (rather than FISH/cytogenetics?)which is usually expressed as a percentage ratio of the levels of bcr/abl (protein)..... it is hard to say. BUT it is likely that you have a further reduction in bcr/abl... and you have already had a molecular response given that your last pcr showed 0.3% (bcr/abl).
I am sorry I can't be more specific than that but I think that you can safely say that you have a further molecular response.. just how deep it is would be a guess.
Why not email or call your doctor again and ask him for the specific numbers. It is better to have the news sooner and not have to wait for a further month.
Congratulations to you... even though you are not sure I think you should be feeling pretty happy ;o)
Sandy
Hi Colin,
I'm not certain what your consultant is referring to here. From what I understand, you have billions of cells. An aspirate looks at a slide of about 200 cells. A PCR looks deeper at many more cells but still you could have leukemia a bit more or less than the test shows.
You really need the test results in hand to review the pcr analysis. You must compare and review the trend from your previous pcr.
Good luck to you. Happy holidays.
Regards,
Tracey