Sunday, May 17, 2015

Hooray for Velcade!



Just a short post.  I am half-way through my second round of Velcade, and the results have been terrific.  Here is the picture:























In September my Free Lambda reading had risen to 170, so they decided to put me back on Revlimid, one of the 3 drugs that worked so well in the summer of 2012.  At the start of November when they started the Revlimid they took another reading, just for a baseline.  It turns out the baseline was 435, what looked like a spike up at the time.  The Revlimid did bring it down a bit, but it mostly went sideways.  Then in April it really spiked, up to 988.  So clearly Revlimid had ceased to be effective against my disease.  Back in June of 2012 when I was first diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, my Free Lambda reading had been 1300, so this was not that much lower.

My oncologist decided to add Velcade, which attacks the cancerous cells in a completely different way.  It blocks the operation of an enzyme that facilitates the removal of waste, so the cells are overwhelmed by their own wastes.  What a way to go!  At any rate, it has been remarkably effective, resulting in the latest reading of 140, which is the lowest it has been since last September.  That is still 5 times the max of the normal range, but if Velcade's effects continue at this rate, the normal range looks to be attainable.


Way to go Velcade!

1 comment:

  1. That's such good news. Did he eliminate the revlimid? And just Velcade and DEX?

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