Guest guest Posted August 23, 2007 Report Share Posted August 23, 2007 Thanks for the input. I have contacted Dr. Druker and will be setting up an appointment with him. I am just going back and forth on when would be the best time. Right now, I have only been on Gleevec since May and only have had one pcr which was qualitative, not quantitative. I think that I would probably do better to wait and see him when I have been on the Gleevec for a year and have a few quantitative pcr's under my belt for him to look at. Merissa > > To Merissa who has Kaiser Insurance (a network HMO). You should know that > Kaiser in Southern California has a special relationship with the City of > Hope Cancer Center which is a top-notch hospital in Duarte near Los Angeles. > (One of only 39 fully accredited Comprehensive Cancer Centers in the USA.) > They do all Kaiser's bone marrow transplants and Kaiser is the only HMO > insurance they accept. Your doctor should be able to approve for you to see > a City of Hope leukemia specialist. The name I heard is best there is Dr. > Snyder. > ____________________ > > Dear le and Merissa, > The only problem with seeing someone at what is mainly a BMT (transplant) > center for a consult is that what they mostly know about is transplants. > So, they may have leukemia specialists there but they are still mainly > transplant specialists. This is NOT the same as seeing a non- transplant CML > specialist, like Dr. Druker, Dr. Talpaz and the like. Because most > CMLers are not high transplant candidates in this day and age, it is really > more beneficial to see someone not connected to a tranplant center. > > Early on in my CML days (I am 9 years since dx) I did do a consult at the > Hutch in Seattle. The new drugs were not available then and I wanted to > know about interferon as a treatment option.....and the MD I consulted with > said:..... " I really can't tell you much about interferon.....BMTs are our > bread and butter " .......which was a very honest reply. > Something to consider, > C. > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted August 23, 2007 Report Share Posted August 23, 2007 Thanks for the input. I have contacted Dr. Druker and will be setting up an appointment with him. I am just going back and forth on when would be the best time. Right now, I have only been on Gleevec since May and only have had one pcr which was qualitative, not quantitative. I think that I would probably do better to wait and see him when I have been on the Gleevec for a year and have a few quantitative pcr's under my belt for him to look at. Merissa ___________________ Hi Merissa, Yes, you do not want a qualitative pcr....you want to get a quantitative pcr so that you have a number to compare. Because you are expecting to go see Dr. Druker for a consult, why not have your blood sent to OHSU/Dr. Druker to have the pcr done there. Many people from different parts of the country do that. They will send you/your lab exact instructions on how to do that. Then I would probably do as you are thinking......have a couple pcrs before you see Dr. Druker at about the one year mark, so he can see what kind of response you are having to Gleevec. C. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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