Well Thanksgiving is over, but my gratitude is not. I am grateful for my family, my friends, my online CLL friends, and the amazing researchers and staff at the National Institutes of Health. How very blessed I am to have the opportunity of being in the NIH ibrutinib clinical trial. I am grateful to have my 15 minutes of fame on this earth by being a participant.
Dr. Mohammed Farooqui will be presenting some of his findings from our clinical trial at the American Society of Hematology in Atlanta, Georgia in December 8-11. One of his findings is that platelet function does not seem to be affected negatively for participants on the experimental drug ibrutinib.
His abstract can be found at this link:
https://ash.confex.com/ash/2012/webprogram/Paper50250.html
My friend Michael Novak also alerted me to a new finding in the leukemia world. Dr. Robert Weinkove is a Clinical Research Fellow at the Malaghan Institute of Medical Research in New Zealand. His research focuses on vaccinating leukemia patients through stimulating the activity of an immune cell called invariant natural killer T (iNKT). This is another targeted immune therapy.
Here is the link, if you would like to read the entire article:
http://www.malaghan.org.nz/news-and-events/boosting-immune-responses-against-leukaemia/
http://sciencealert.com.au/news-nz/20122011-23865-2.html
We are at the brink of discovery. The maintenance of leukemia for high-risk patients, and perhaps even the cure are right around the corner.
I am headed out to Bethesda, Maryland next week. I will be posting the results of my tests after I return.
Dr. Mohammed Farooqui, the PI for the ibrutinib clinical trial, emailed me the following:
ReplyDelete"Another investigator in our branch is also working on NK cells, they are not invariant as this article mentions, but NK cells are also promising for CLL. However, the process is usually more involved then giving pills such as ibrutinib. Ibrutinib is very unique in terms of action and convenience. As we do not know if or when people will relapse on ibrutinib, NK cells could be the next avenue to look at for relapsed patients."