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Confused About Vaccine
I had an interview this past week with Dr. Teresa Gilewski at Memorial Sloan Kettering regarding their Phase 1Xenogeneic HER2/neu DNA vaccine clinical trial. Only about 12 people will take place in the trial & so far their are no recruits although the doctor said they were waiting for some people to finish their treatment.
The doctor told me that I qualify for the vaccine; that I might have flu-like side effects; thyroid problems (but not likely, unless I had previous thyroid problems); that the vaccine has not been tested on humans, only on rats. I will be given a total of 5 injections over 13 weeks & followed closely with scans (MUGA, CAT & BONE scans) & blood tests.
I want to do everything to prevent my cancer from coming back, so far NED (diagnosed 10/04; stage III; lumpectomy with 7 positive nodes; ER+; HER2+; chemo & herceptin) but I'm very hesitant about being in a Phase 1 trial & I couldn't get a straight answer from the doctor as to when Phase II will begin or even if there will be a phase II.
I'm also really confused about the differences between the other clinical trials going on at other facilities...the one at Univ. of Washington; Univ. of Pa.; Walter Reed & Bavarian Nordic (a new one). I think that Dr. Gilewski did say that this trial was similar to the one at the Univ. of Wash., but not quite the same.
I'm really having a problem sorting this out & would like to talk to somebody about this before I jump into it but I'm not sure who that would be.
Eileen
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