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Update from Basil in South Africa

 Hello all,

It has been a long time since my last progress post. A brief background was that due to some harsh side effects whilst on Gleevec I decided to cease taking the drug for a "holiday" period. This decision was based on the results of the STIM trials in France and the fact that my CML was undetected for a 3 year period. Of course this was done with the blessing of my Hematologist, providing PCR and FBC tests were done   quarterly.

These are my full results to date:

Date                      Result              BCR/ABL

19/08/2009     Detected                0.00083

17/10/2009     Undetected            0.00013

06/01/2010     Undetected            0.00024

10/03/2010     Detected                0.0011

08/06/2010     Detected                0.0065

10/09/2010     Detected                0.0005

20/12/2010     Detected                0.0037

17/03/2011     Undetected            0.00015

I suspended taking Gleevec on the 30/04/2009. So 23 months down the line I have once again had a negative test. Thank to God, this is truly a great team performance.

Now, I do not advocate stopping Gleevec or another TKI, but my results prove it was possible in my case, given my own set of circumstances. In the STIM Trials 50% of the participants relapsed within 6 months.

My next PCR will be 4 months from now, and hopefully I will again have great results to report.

BTW. How is Des getting on these days. He stopped taking Gleevec a month before me in 2009 and I have lost track of his progress.

I was diagnosed with CML in May 2003 and was on Interferon A for a few months. The results were good but the side effects nearly killed me.

Basil they are truly brilliant results - long may they continue!

K

Dear Basil.... great news and thanks for the update. I was wondering how you were getting on. Hope this continues- it is such good news.

Best wishes,

Sandy

Basil, Very many congratulations on the 23 month report. I am sure a position that all CML patients on drug therapy aspire to.

Very best wishes for the next 4 month test.

One query? When your results are reported what is the significance of the very low BCRABL ratio . Some of the results seem to be detected and some undetected but when i first read your post I thought perhaps that once the reading went below 0.001 it might be shown as undetectable and any, at or over 0.001 as detected, but this does not seem to be the case. I can appreciate that these results must all be on the very margins of the PCR test in terms of sensitivity.

 

Thanks and congratulations again

Regards

Andy

The figures I gave were not expressed as a BCR/ABL:ABL ratio, but expressed as a percentage of BCR/ABL.

The actual BCR/ABL ratio on undetected results were 0.0000

The RTQ-PCR tests are very finite as the log reductions we are looking at exceed the figure 4.

I am not an expert in this field and I am just over the moon in maintaining my status, drug free. Only time will tell if my immune system can overcome the 9/22 chromosome abnormality which still exists.

Kind regards,

Basil