Hi Livia, As you already know - I am keeping my fingers crossed that you continue to feel well.
I am one of the rare cases of good responder to IFN. I was on it for 18 mos. at a very low dose and had no side effects at all. If it were feasible for me, I would gladly be in this trial. I think Dr. Douglas Smith is a very smart doctor and you are very lucky. As you correctly guessed, IFN before the days of Gleevec was difficult for most patients to tolerate and the side effects at the very high doses needed made life miserable for most. As you can imagine, all were very happy to have Gleevec. Additionally IFN alone as a single therapy wasn't always good at controlling the disease, only a small population responded well. Gleevec works better on the larger population and it was indeed a very good lifeline to many of us. The new approach in working with IFN is different in that doctors are trying to see if using it in combination with other drugs will stimulate an immune response and teach or program the body to seek out and destroy the CML cells itself. The BCR ABL gene is detectable in a surprisingly large part of the normal population, but somehow, we do not understand why, their immune system recognizes it and doesn't allow it to get out of control. It is fascinating to hear about your study. It shows that this is one approach that is being researched into tricking the body to cure itself. Fascinating science. Without Gleevec the study you are on would be hard to imagine. So, another reason why we should be happy about Gleevec and all other TKI's. Love and prayers to you, Cheryl-Anne On Apr 14, 10:31 pm, livia klescova <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Hi all, > > how wonderful to read so many posts from all of you guys who have had CML > for such a long time. For me, 29 years old, it really means a lot. > > I would like to update you all on my progress with Gleevec+IFN+Sargamostim > trial. I am doing well. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ [CMLHope] A support group of http://cmlhope.com ------------------------------------------------- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "CMLHope" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/CMLHope -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
