More Good News

While in Seattle last month, Jill and Sylvia learned about options available to Jill to prevent a recurrence of her cancer. Doctors at Fred Hutchinson recommended a haplo-identical allogeneic bone marrow transplant; basically, a bone marrow transplant from a blood relative whose marrow matches only partially. Research shows that this type of transplant is more effective than the perfect match transplant that Jill had two years ago. The thinking is that donor marrow too closely matched does not fight a patient’s cancer much better than the patient’s own and that less well matched marrow can better recognize and kill the cancer cells. This treatment was rare when Jill was going through her previous transplant, but as more data becomes available, doctors are finding that this is a more effective treatment. While in Seattle, Sylvia was tested to determin if she could be the donor for Jill. We are still waiting to find out if Sylvia will be an appropriate donor.

Jill had another complete scan last week, and learned Monday that there are no signs of cancer. The scans did show some inflammation in her lungs so she will have additional testing to determine the cause.

Jill will return to Seattle for the transplant after her doctors address some other issues. First they will address the lung issues revealed in her scan. They will then address problems causing her to require blood transfusions every two to four weeks. She will undergo four weeks of chemotherapy in an attempt to stop her body from destroying the blood cells her marrow is producing. Our best guess now is that Jill and Sylvia will go to Seattle at the beginning of November and stay about 100 days.

Jill’s latest treatment has beaten back the lymphoma, and we are optimistic that the next treatment will keep it away.

tom