So, many are wondering… what’s going on with the cancer?  How’s that crazy Multiple Myeloma doing?  Well, our boy Dain is still in part one of the three part plan.  The drugs he’s on (Revlimid and Dexamethasone) seem to be doing their part to lower his cancer numbers.  Basically, they work within the bone marrow to stop or slow the growth of cancerous myeloma cells… see chart below.

Once the numbers either go to zero or plateau, Dain will move on to part two… the Autologous stem cell transplant.  He’ll spend about three weeks doing a transplant evaluation (where they test various things in his body to make sure that he is healthy enough for the stem cell transplant).  Then there’s the stem cell collection phase, a three-week period where out boy will be doing outpatient Cytoxan chemotherapy with Neupogen injections while they collect his relatively healthy stem cells.  And finally, step two ends with Dain going into the hospital for high dose chemotherapy and then the stem cell transplant (infusion of stem cells).  He’ll then spend a couple of weeks in the hospital, waiting for his immune system to start working again!

After about three to eight weeks of outpatient care, our hero will be admitted to the hospital for step three – the Allogenic stem cell transplant, where Dain will receive donor stem cells.  He will have intermediate dose chemotherapy, and then the infusion of donor stem cells (potentially his brother Ken’s, though he won’t be tested for a while – if he’s not a viable donor, they’ll go to the national database for a donor).

In theory, while there is no “cure” for Multiple Myeloma, this is the best treatment option to afford Dain a longer time without the disease.  Basically, step one puts Dain into remission, and the cancer would eventually reappear in a few years.  Theoretically, this will keep the cancer away longer – and hopefully, with new research going on all the time, there may be a true cure at some point.

The hard part right now for our boy is the waiting… when first diagnosed, there was a flurry of activity… but now, he just takes his drugs, feels relatively flu-ish and crappy all the time, and waits for his numbers to go down.  His doctor assures him that things are going well, and for now it’s just a waiting game.

We’ll keep you posted…