[rumnting]

Typical work up before clinical trials?

by rumnting on Sun Jul 19, 2015 9:21 am

My husband is hoping to get into the daratumumab Expanded Access Program trial at the University of Michigan. They don't yet have the date for when they are actually enrolling patients.

I'm curious to hear from others who have participated in trials. What type of work-up is usually done before starting the trial? Bone marrow biopsy (BMB)? PET scan?

[PattyB]

Re: Typical work up before clinical trials?

by PattyB on Tue Jul 21, 2015 5:56 pm

Rumnting

My husband was in the panobinostat (Farydak) clinical trial (2011-0192) along with Revlimid, Velcade and dexamethasone at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston from July 2014 to January 2015. Prior to acceptance in the clinical trial, he had a PET/CT, a bone marrow biopsy, whole body x-ray, an echocardiogram, and blood work.

He was to continue the panobinostat during maintenance chemotherapy, but because two plasmacytomas on his spine did not respond to the chemotherapy and grew a little, he was deemed as having "disease progression," and taken off the clinical trial. In reality, though, the presence of myeloma in his body was significantly diminished and he achieved a very good partial response (VGPR). The plasmacytomas were knocked out with radiation therapy in May.