TerryH wrote:
> I believe this is the news that you were referring to in your posting.
>
> https://myelomabeacon.org/news/2011/08/12/gene-therapy-advance-in-leukemia-suggests-new-treatment-options-for-multiple-myeloma/
Yes, that is the news article I was referring to. To me it appears to be the most promissing path to a cure. Chemical agents may never be able to kill every last cancer cell, but the imunne system just may be able to do that while leaving healthy cells intact and continue to search and kill multiple myeloma cells for a prolonged period of time.
Forums
Re: Advances in cancer drugs
Eric,
Glad to hear you are doing well. I am a big believer in Immunotherapy - I did an Allo 11 months ago as part of my upfront therapy. I do not want to be a "wet blanket" with respect to the CLL vaccine at UPenn, but the vaccine did not leave the healthy cells intact. The vaccine at the time of that reporting was destroying all the patients B Cells. None of them at the time of reporting were able to fight infection like a healthy person would. That is a big problem for this particular vaccine to ever become widely available. What they were doing was getting a monthly IVIG infusion. I needed 4 of them myself after my Allo. While they help fighting infection, patients getting the IVIG infusion are much more likely to get infections than a person with a healthy immune system. The cost of one infusion is in the $5,000 range. While my Insurance Co. has been outstanding about paying all the costs of my treatment (Allo alone was over $600K), they have required a lot of documentation before approving my IVIG infusions. Also, if thousands of patients suddenly needed IVIG monthly, there would not be enough supply to meet the demand. IVIG is the pooled IgG's of 1,000 donors.
Unless there is a characteristic that is exclusive to only the Myeloma cells, the UPenn vaccine approach will cause damage to healthy cells in Myeloma patients. In our case that could mean we would not have any plasma cells to fight infection. That is a major drawback to that vaccine approach. As a big proponent of Immunotherapy, I am hoping they will figure out a way to overcome that problem. It will be a great day when more patients can get long term disease freedom without all the side effects our current therapies cause.
Mark
Glad to hear you are doing well. I am a big believer in Immunotherapy - I did an Allo 11 months ago as part of my upfront therapy. I do not want to be a "wet blanket" with respect to the CLL vaccine at UPenn, but the vaccine did not leave the healthy cells intact. The vaccine at the time of that reporting was destroying all the patients B Cells. None of them at the time of reporting were able to fight infection like a healthy person would. That is a big problem for this particular vaccine to ever become widely available. What they were doing was getting a monthly IVIG infusion. I needed 4 of them myself after my Allo. While they help fighting infection, patients getting the IVIG infusion are much more likely to get infections than a person with a healthy immune system. The cost of one infusion is in the $5,000 range. While my Insurance Co. has been outstanding about paying all the costs of my treatment (Allo alone was over $600K), they have required a lot of documentation before approving my IVIG infusions. Also, if thousands of patients suddenly needed IVIG monthly, there would not be enough supply to meet the demand. IVIG is the pooled IgG's of 1,000 donors.
Unless there is a characteristic that is exclusive to only the Myeloma cells, the UPenn vaccine approach will cause damage to healthy cells in Myeloma patients. In our case that could mean we would not have any plasma cells to fight infection. That is a major drawback to that vaccine approach. As a big proponent of Immunotherapy, I am hoping they will figure out a way to overcome that problem. It will be a great day when more patients can get long term disease freedom without all the side effects our current therapies cause.
Mark
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Mark
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