HER2 Support Group Forums - View Single Post - another inductee into the exclusive brain met club

al from Canada · 01-27-2006, 06:31 PM

I want to thank everyone for their support and prayers. It is truly overwhelming the response to Linda's recent battle.

She has finished her first week on the ALLOS trial and is doing so much better. This is the first day since the beginning of December that Linda didn't need at least one mid-day nap. On Tuesday, she went for a nap at 3:00 pm and didn't awake until 9 the next morning.

This is so encouraging for us as a family. Just another report; our 3 kids, ages 19, 20 and 22 (the girl) have been so supportive. They have developed a routine whre they all blitz the house for 1 1/2 hours a day, re-painting, cleaning, washing floors; I'm starting to wonder if they shouldn't start a cleaning business...even their rooms are clean!!

The trial is amazing. The theory is that the ALLOS drug encourages hemoglobin to dump bound Oxygen (O2) and encourages its cellular uptake. Tumor cells being hypoxic should proportionately pick-up more O2. The O2 is a radio-sensitizer and increases the tumor killing of the rads. They put an alligator clip on her finger which measures O2 content and all the while she is on an O2 support. When they finish the rads, they remove the O2 support and where her O2 level was 99% before the drug, it plunged to 83%!! We have to wait until her O2 goes up to 90% unassisted before they release her. On Tuesday it took 3 hours, today it took 30 minutes. Obviously the drug does what it is supposed to; I just hope the O2 goes to the tumors.

One more week left and then back on the xeloda, herceptin and most likely one of the HER1 inhibitors.
I will update at the end of next week.

Greatfully yours,
Al

01-27-2006, 06:31 PM	#40
al from Canada Senior Member Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: Ontario, Canada Posts: 722	thanks to all my friends and Linda update I want to thank everyone for their support and prayers. It is truly overwhelming the response to Linda's recent battle. She has finished her first week on the ALLOS trial and is doing so much better. This is the first day since the beginning of December that Linda didn't need at least one mid-day nap. On Tuesday, she went for a nap at 3:00 pm and didn't awake until 9 the next morning. This is so encouraging for us as a family. Just another report; our 3 kids, ages 19, 20 and 22 (the girl) have been so supportive. They have developed a routine whre they all blitz the house for 1 1/2 hours a day, re-painting, cleaning, washing floors; I'm starting to wonder if they shouldn't start a cleaning business...even their rooms are clean!! The trial is amazing. The theory is that the ALLOS drug encourages hemoglobin to dump bound Oxygen (O2) and encourages its cellular uptake. Tumor cells being hypoxic should proportionately pick-up more O2. The O2 is a radio-sensitizer and increases the tumor killing of the rads. They put an alligator clip on her finger which measures O2 content and all the while she is on an O2 support. When they finish the rads, they remove the O2 support and where her O2 level was 99% before the drug, it plunged to 83%!! We have to wait until her O2 goes up to 90% unassisted before they release her. On Tuesday it took 3 hours, today it took 30 minutes. Obviously the drug does what it is supposed to; I just hope the O2 goes to the tumors. One more week left and then back on the xeloda, herceptin and most likely one of the HER1 inhibitors. I will update at the end of next week. Greatfully yours, Al __________________ Primary care-giver to and advocate for Linda, who passed away April 27, 2006.