More Changes

Well, after the Sunesis failed, Dr. Keating switched over to a chemo cocktail using two older drugs as discussed in my last post. After two weekly rounds of that, it failed also. We thought it was working and even planned on getting the 3rd infusion locally in Atlanta. But last Saturday night, the 14th, the nodes flared significantly. That meant a quick trip to Houston Sunday as planned - good thing we didn't cancel our plane flight.

Dr. Keating ran tests Monday and Tuesday and started another chemo on Wednesday for three days. This drug is also an older drug, Chlofarabine. So far this has worked like magic, but then again it could be the big slug of steroids they always lead chemo with.

If this works we'll stay on it for a while. But we are likely to go to a Phase II study run in Columbus, Ohio at OSU. Ohio State Medical Center is big into CLL studies also. They are in the CLL consortium of several institutions that pool some resources including extensive labs at UCSD (San Diego).

Keating still thinks that ultimately we want on the Sunesis drug, but Sunesis is so early in its development that they don't have an effective dosage yet. It apparently holds the most promise at this point thinking longer term.

So we have a plan with a short term chemo, a little longer term chemo, and maybe an even longer term solution in Sunesis.

We are coming home today for what we hope is three weeks before getting the next round of Chlofarabine. I need your thoughts and prayers that this next chemo works.