Anyone experienced with clinical trials?

I applied for a clinical trial for the Her2 Vaccine for women who have not had Herceptin. I found out my muga scan was 54 and I needed a score of 55 and my lymphocytes were 2.54 and I needed 3.0 or higher. I was not told to fast so I wonder if that affected my muga scan. Do lymphocyte counts vary or are they constant? I was extremely dejected...

Ronnie: I have had several MUGA scans and was never told to fast for any of them. Sorry you didn't make it into that particular trial. There are several vaccine trials going on for people who have never taken herceptin. (It is hard to find a vaccine trial if you have ALREADY taken Herceptin.) You might want to go to the Clinical Trial section at this site or even just type in HER2, Clinical Trial into your favorite search engine...you might find something that way. Best of Luck, Linda

hi ronnie-
i'm a clinical research coordinator, as well as battled stage iv.i was also enrolled in a clinical trial during my treatment (taxol + study drug-it was a continuous iv hooked up to my port for 2 weeks at a time!).i hope i can be helpful to you...
the muga scan measures the ejection fraction(EF) of your heart, or how much blood it ejects out with each contraction.fasting or not fasting has no effect.your lymphocytes are your white blood cells, or your infection fighting cells.if your EF or your lymphocytes are measured below what is acceptable for the study, they have to "exclude" you & you won't be eligible to enroll.BUT sometimes you can re-screen after 30 days.ask the clinical research coordinator that you've been in contact with if they allow for re-screening (if they don't know, make sure they check with the monitor for drug company sponsoring the trial).
if you've been on adria or any other chemo combo and are now drug free, you should see your EF & your lymphocytes recover to normal levels,
hopefully within 30 days, and then you can re-screen and enroll with a normal muga & labs.
I wish you luck.please contact me if i can offer any additional help.don't be discouraged, keep the faith!
jessica