My husband, 49, was diagnosed in March of 2008 and was treated with Revlimid for 17 months. He had a complete response but relapsed after 3 months. He was placed back on Revlimid but did not respond so Velcade was added and we began the process for an autologous stem cell transplant. After just one round of Velcade he was suffering from severe neuropathy and with the transplant scheduled, all treatments were discontinued. He completed tandem transplants in November of 2011 and we were elated to be told he had had a complete response and would not need any maintenance therapy! At his one-year check-up with the transplant team, there was mild concern about the results of his bone marrow biopsy and we pushed up his appointment with his local oncologist. His bloodwork revealed that he was in fact relapsing and a maintenance dosage of Revlimid was prescribed. After one month of treatment, the proteins had doubled. He is scheduled to begin carfilzomib on Friday and his oncologist is encouraging us to begin the process for an allogeneic transplant.
Has anyone else been down this road? I know I haven't given specific numbers, but he has always been considered high-risk and I'm wondering if the benefits from an allo transplant are worth the considerable risks? We were certain we would get a longer remission from the auto transplants that took six months to completely recover from, although I know there are no guarantees. With Revlimid not working and Velcade off the table, are there enough options left without transplant? Should we give the carfilzomib a chance to work before making any decisions? We don't want to wait until he's too ill to have the transplant, but how do you know what's right?
