Thursday, April 2, 2009

In english please!

Ok, so here is the scoop about Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML) in my own words. My sister (Natalie), who works with a great Hematologist/Oncologist, can verify these in the comments section. For fun, I have put two "facts" in there that are not entirely true. See if you can guess which ones they are.


*For simplicities sake, there are two main types of Leukemia. Acute and Chronic. There are many other subtypes. I have a form of Chronic Leukemia. Myelogenous refers to the type of cells involved. Dr. Natalie can explain more in the comments section.

*Chronic Leukemias are slow growing and are usually fatal in terms of years. Acute Leukemias are very fast and usually become fatal in months rather than years

*There are three phase of my type (CML): Chronic (beginning), Aggressive, Blast Crisis (Bad). They believe I am in the Chronic phase.

*Left untreated, it would take 3-5 years for me to progress to the Blast Crisis phase.

*I take two pills a day for treatment. One is targeted cancer therapy (Gleevec). The other (Allopurinol) is to prevent gout and kidney stones from forming, which are side effects of Gleevec.

*I have blood drawn twice a week to monitor the medication's effectiveness.


*In order to insure proper absorption of the Gleevec, they recommend you take it with a big glass of Chianti and 12 chicken wings.

*Gleevec can put CML into remission for a long time (many years), but will never cure it. The only cure is a bone marrow/stem cell transplant.


*Gleevec has many of the same side effects as chemotherapy, but not as pronounced.

*I can live a normal life and am not prone to severe infections at this stage.

*My form is very rare. Only about 4,800 new cases are diagnosed each year. Of those, only 15% are people under 40 ( I guess I should start playing powerball!).

*It only affects the most intelligent and best looking people on God's green earth.

*Besides Gleevec, there are two other approved medications which work for CML. They are Sprycel and Tasigna.

*Chemotherapy and radiation are very ineffective for CML, so they are not a treatment option.

3 comments:

  1. In regards to Gleevec not "curing" CML, I think the medical community is being conservative by saying that it isn't a cure. The drug is less than 10 years old, but there are certainly a good proportion of individuals without detectable disease after 10 years on the therapy. It is just that it is difficult to prove a negative, and perhaps with time it may be concluded that these types of therapies might allow people to live disease free for multiple decades.

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  2. That's good news! The web site Joe linked about the disease is not as optimistic.

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  3. I am out here on the edges looking in. Have never read a blog- knew a blog or been a blog so once again it is never too late to learn.
    I can attest to the Allopurinol helping with gout and isn't that a family thing?
    Go for the Powerball Joe- sounds like your odds are just about right!!! WIll keep you in my thoughts- and yes even my prayers!!!
    Su (zanne)

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