Things I've learned from today's infusion of nivolumab through my clinical trial at Johns Hopkins:
1. Getting my lab work done the day before saves at least two hours on infusion day at Hopkins.
2. My port (over 3 years old) does not like to return blood. It takes infusions just fine, but when nurses try to draw blood through it, the tip of the port apparently buries itself into the tissue of the vein, blocking blood draws. Almost every time I've gone in, there have been some issues with my port. Today I got my infusion through an IV while a clot-busting drug was shoved into my port to dissolve whatever was precluding getting a return.
3. According to Dr. Hahn, it's too soon to say that I have had a complete response, even though my recent CT scan showed that all of my tumors had shrunk to under 1 cm in size. Dr. Hahn said that the line between a partial response and a complete response is a fuzzy one, but because my scan still detected the presence of tumors, I'm still waiting for a CR.
4. There is still no published data on nivolumab on metastatic bladder cancer. But Dr. Hahn expects to see some new data at this month's annual meeting of ASCO in Chicago. Stay tuned for updates.
5. Bristol Myers Squibb has just announced a new Phase II trial for nivolumab in metastatic bladder cancer. Apparently it's been getting enough favorable reports from my trial that the company is moving forward with getting FDA approval for mets BC.
6. The plan is to stay the course and continue getting treatments for a while.
Ken, I just completed the 3rd infusion of nivolumab as part of a Phase 3 trial at UCLA, so it looks a bit like a parallel path, with me a couple of months behind. After surgery and radiation last year my melanoma metastasized to the right side of my neck in January of 2015. The tumors had grown to be quite large by the start of treatment on 4/20, but amazingly, after two treatments they are almost gone. I had a lot of the same questions you addressed in previous posts (thank you) which were addressed today, with results very similar to what you were told. I'd like to compare other items if and/or when you have time. Note: I sent early comments but they might not have gone through. BW - Irvine, CA
ReplyDeleteBW: Great news! Hope all continues to go well.Send me a friend request through BCAN (my page is at https://www.inspire.com/kbros/), and we can compare notes either by email or phone.
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