CAR T Acceptance ! (as of 5 nov)

*05 November edit at the end.

Earlier this week we got a call from Vanderbilt saying Cathy has been accepted into the CAR T program. We were ecstatic !   Truthfully when we left Nashville, we had doubts they would let her participate. Sometimes things work in your favor.

To level the bubbles for the reader - with Cathy’s brand of MM, Stem cell transplant (SCT) is ultimate goal- it represents the best chances for durable remission. Not every MM patient gets to participate in SCT. Some are disqualified for morbidity issues, others disqualified for other issues. And some don’t make it to the 5% goal required for SCT – like Cathy.

In Cathy's case, her cancer refracted at 8%. It went from 8% to 90 % in a matter of weeks. Oncologists responded with the next strategy. {there is a whole blog to be written about cancer and how Oncologists fight cancer – it is essentially a cookbook of approved recipes developed over time [read time as clinical studies and cases over the years] …. Anyway that is for another day ……. Back to what I was saying  …………

So in cases like this, patients are kindof knocked out of the running for SCT and other therapies are applied (like Cathys doctor did when her # went awry).

Of the “other” therapies out there that can deliver a durable remission period – CAR T is the leader. So – we are very excited to get in.

So what is next?  -- Next week (Oct 17-18) we go to Nashville and spend 2 days at Vanderbilt getting evaluated and counseled.  It is an intensive (and expensive) procedure and Vande seems to be doing a good job making sure we understand what is about to happen.

Once evaluation is done, at some point we will return to have blood taken and that blood will be shipped off and re-engineered into CAR T, then we will go back to Vanderbilt for the procedure.

Supposedly, the injection of CAR T into her is the easy part – after that – we stay in Nashville in a nearby outpatient lodging facility to monitor and care for Cathy for 36 days.  Holy shit. We don’t know the details of the 36 days – just that her immune system will be zero’d out and a lot of care has to be taken to protect her.

At the end of the 36 days we return home.

05 November Addendum : 

This Week we learned from Vanderbilt that our insurance has agreed to pay for CAR-T ....shoooo !  We happy ! cuz I dont think we could shake $500,000 out of thge couch :)

OK - So next Step is to await the call forward to Nashville for T Cell Harvest. Based on my study - we think that will happen right after Thanksgiving. 

Thats it - till next time. 

Kevin