Trial starting next week!

Rob is scheduled to begin the clinical trial next week, at least according to the patient portal (pending final trial approval).

However, we have no idea which arm of the trial he is scheduled for, but hope to know that soon. 2 of 3 arms requires hospitalization to monitor side effects, the other two do not.

We are anxious and ready to begin the new treatment.

It’s definitely nice to see treatment appointments scheduled  on the patient portal beginning next week. I should have more info soon, and will update as soon as I do.

We are at LCI now  for a few extra labs he needed for trial.

Thank you for your love and support!

Lambda Light Chain Results

We learned Rob’s multiple myeloma (the lambda light chains lab result) continued to spike, which we expected.

We also learned  that his 24 hour urine test showed the lambda light chains present.  We don’t know the significance of this, but when we do, I’ll update here.

Now we are just waiting on the bone marrow biopsy results. No matter what it shows, he will still be going in the clincial trial- I believe they just have to wait on the result before starting. If I am wrong on that I’ll correct that info. 

The pics below are screenshots from the patient protal. They provide  visuals of Rob’s lambda light chains. These are the light chains that indicate myeloma is back.

It’s important to note that some with multiple myeloma may have kappa light chain myeloma, where they would be more concerned with kappa light chains. Since Rob has lambda light chain multiple myeloma, we are concerned with his lambda light chains.

To help visialize, I’ve added two screen shots from the patient portal,  which show what his lambda light chains have done the past few months.

Chart 1: You can see that the middle row,  “Free lambda light chains”  reads 131.82, far from the normal range of 5.71-26.3.

Chart 2: Starting at the bottom, November 2023, you can see how much and how fast the lamnda light chains have jumped.

We will update you when we have more information to share about the expected start date of the clinical trial (probably within 1-2 weeks). Once we know which arm of the trial he is in, I can provide more information on that.

Thank you so very much for being here! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

Talquetamab & Multiple Myeloma

Hi everyone,

In trying to break up the information, here is a a short  post about the trial. 

From the consent forms:

“Talquetamab is an experimental drug for multiple myeloma.  The purpose of this study is to see whether chemotherapy with Talquetamab is better than standard treatment for subjects with multiple myeloma.”

Dr. Voorhees, who is overseeing this trial at Levine Cancer, shares more in this clip for those interested.  Thank you for being here! ❤️

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUhgepIHo-M&pp=ygUbQml0ZSBwZXRlciB2b29yaGVlcyBteWVsb21h

Consent forms & pre-screening tests

Hi everyone,

Thank you for the continued encouragement, love, and support!❤️

The oncology research nurse specialist called yesterday.

She sent over the paperwork for the clincial trial consent. 

Next week, we meet with his multiple myeloma specialist, followed by a meeting with the oncology research nurse specialist.

At the appointment with the oncology reaearch nurse specialist, he signs the consent forms that he reviewed last night, and that begins the process of scheduling  pre-screening appointments for the actual trial.

Some of the upcoming screening tests after signing the consent forms at the appointment include (copied from the forms):

Review of medications and medical history

Physical exam by study doctor

Measure height and weight

Measure temperature, breathing rate, blood pressure, oylxygen levels

Measure heartbeat by electrocardiogram (ECG)

Imaging bone x-ray, CT Scan, PET/CT scan to look for disease throughout your body

Bone Marrow Aspirate/Biopsy

Urine sample to measure multiple myeloma proteins in your urine

Blood tests

Breathing tests

We’ll continue to update the blog and share what we learn along the way. 

We are feeling excited to get started and extremely anxious at the same time.

Thank you for being here! ❤️