Antibody therapy. This is technically the maintenance part of Trinitys cancer treatment. For those of you wondering what it is: The antibody is called ch14.18. Thats what shell get for the next 4 days, as well as her daily shot of gmcsf. The ch14.18 will attach to any neuroblastoma cells left in her bone marrow, like a marker. The gmcsf makes her body produce massive amounts of warrior cells, aka white blood cells, essentially kicking her immune system into high drive. When the antibody attaches to the blasts her immune system will attack them. This is supposed to be extremely painful, theyll start her on a constant drip of morphine before they even start the antibody. When shes done with her 14 days of gmcsf, shell start her 14 days of accutane, which is a pill shell have to take 2X a day. Accutane is most commonly used as a treatment for acne in teenagers. In neuroblastoma, its been proven to mature the blasts into benign cells. Side effects for antibody are pain, capillary leakage, which can make her very swollen, and a few other things. There have been 2 children in 17 years whose hearts have stopped because of the antibodies. The accutane will cause extreme dry skin, especially around the mouth. That being said, we are officially admitted and in our room (H12B44). Everyone please keep us in your thoughts the next 4 days and hope that her side effects are minimal! Thank you!
Posted on: Mon, 02 Jun 2014 14:37:56 +0000
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