For those who remember Ohad Hammer, he's once again added IMGN to his watch list.
orf-blog.com
I believe he has a good handle on what's happening at the company.
Personally, as I think most of you know I'm in treatment for Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. At this point they've stopped the I.V. Chemo after 4 of the 8 courses and while I'm not quite in molecular remission, my level is under one. The plan is continuing oral chemo, switching Gleevec to Sprycel, and hopefully reaching statistical zero in another month, when they'll check my blood again for the presence of the Philadelphia Chromosome. The test takes roughly 2 weeks, and if I'm at zero preparation will begin for a stem cell transplant a few weeks later at City of Hope.
My sister, who's the only living relative that could be a match, isn't. I do believe their will be several matches as a preliminary search at Cedars Sinai showed some ten point matches.
Most people refer to what I'm getting as a Marrow Transplant, it isn't, nor are most of the transplants that are referred to that way. The reality is, the donor has the choice of where the stem cells are taken from. If they choose, they can be taken from the marrow, it takes less time, but may be more painful. The other choice is taking them out of the blood after being dosed with drugs that increase the stem cells available in the blood. While the blood may sound easier, I'm told that side effects of the drugs are unpleasant for some, and it may take as many as three days to gather sufficient stem cells, though some donor's do it in one. The point is, using stem cells from the blood is less predictable wrt side effects and time, while marrow has some pain, but it's over quicker. Unlike true marrow transplants, stem cell transplants are easily recovered from and little or no risk to the donor. The stem cells are transfused by IV into the recipient, they do not need to be put into either the marrow or the spinal column, just into the blood stream. It then takes weeks or longer to develop sufficient immunity to venture outside the hospital, and many months before you can freely be in a crowd, but in time, if all goes well, life returns to some degree of normalcy.
Gary |
