Re: Questions about bone marrow testing?

[Guest guest]

Hi Ray,

The log reduction is in general given by PCR test (quantitative RT-PCR is

the exact name of the test) from a blood draw. Your wife is still very early

in the treatment, she ll get blood remission first (normal wbc count) and

then in a few months hopefully she ll see the number of cml cells go

down. Until then you both should take it easy and try to enjoy yourselves.

Marcos.

On 10/30/07, monkeyfun_16901 <monkeyfun_16901@...> wrote:

>

> Hi, folks thanks again for all the wonderfull information. I was

> speaking to beths oncologist this am. on the phone and after a little

> over a week on hydroxurea her white counts have dropped from 85,000

> down to 35,000. She had to stop taking allopurinal due to a rash.

> Still we see this as very positive and he does not think the

> allopurinal is needed now that her counts are where they are. The one

> thing that concearned me is that he stated he did not think she would

> be needing another bone marrow biopsy even in the distant future

> stating he would do all the testing by blood alone. How will we know

> if we reach the magic 3 log reduction then? Does this sound right or

> after a period of time should we push for another bone marrow biopsy

> even though Beth dreads it?

> Thanks,

> Ray

>

>

>

--

Marcos Perreau Guimaraes

Suppes Brain Lab

Ventura Hall - CSLI

Stanford University

220 Panama street

Stanford CA 94305-4101

650 614 2305

650 630 5015 (cell)

marcospg@...

montereyunderwater@...

www.stanford.edu/~marcospg/

[Guest guest]

My last bone marrow biopsy was in April of 2005. I have been managing very well

on Gleevec with blood tests only as a monitor. I'm going to have another bone

marrow biopsy next month. So far, that has worked for me.

@...: monkeyfun_16901@...: Tue, 30 Oct 2007

13:53:33 +0000Subject: [ ] Questions about bone marrow testing?

Hi, folks thanks again for all the wonderfull information. I was speaking to

beths oncologist this am. on the phone and after a little over a week on

hydroxurea her white counts have dropped from 85,000 down to 35,000. She had to

stop taking allopurinal due to a rash. Still we see this as very positive and he

does not think the allopurinal is needed now that her counts are where they are.

The one thing that concearned me is that he stated he did not think she would be

needing another bone marrow biopsy even in the distant future stating he would

do all the testing by blood alone. How will we know if we reach the magic 3 log

reduction then? Does this sound right or after a period of time should we push

for another bone marrow biopsy even though Beth dreads it?Thanks,Ray

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[Guest guest]

Hi Ray,

This is one of those issues that even the top doctors can't seem to

agree on. Most of the top doctors however, will still do periodic

BMB's.

There is no standard schedule anymore but it would be reasonable to

have a BMB 6 months after Gleevec is started to confirm that the

patient is in CCR. After that, most doctors will stick with PCR's and

do BMB's yearly or maybe every 2 years if the patient has achieved a

significant molecular response.

I think someone already explained that you don't need a BMB to track

the log reduction, that's the PCR's that do that but it is a good idea

to have a BMB sometime in the first year to confirm the CCR and verify

that there aren't any clonal evolutions (other chromosomal changes) or

marrow issues going on.

Take care,

Tracey

--- In , " monkeyfun_16901 " <monkeyfun_16901@...>

wrote:

>

> Hi, folks thanks again for all the wonderfull information. I was

> speaking to beths oncologist this am. on the phone and after a little

> over a week on hydroxurea her white counts have dropped from 85,000

> down to 35,000. She had to stop taking allopurinal due to a rash.

> Still we see this as very positive and he does not think the

> allopurinal is needed now that her counts are where they are. The

one

> thing that concearned me is that he stated he did not think she would

> be needing another bone marrow biopsy even in the distant future

> stating he would do all the testing by blood alone. How will we know

> if we reach the magic 3 log reduction then? Does this sound right or

> after a period of time should we push for another bone marrow biopsy

> even though Beth dreads it?

> Thanks,

> Ray

>