01/02/2010
by Michael Wells On New Year’s Eve I could not sleep and so I decided to do some research regarding Brady’s next round of chemotherapy. In my efforts to better understand the drug protocol I came across an article in Journal of Clinical Oncology on Mitoxantrone and Cytarabine Induction, High-Dose Cytarabine, and Etoposide Intensification for Pediatric Patients With Relapsed or Refractory Acute Myeloid Leukemia: Children’s Cancer Group Study 2951 what made this a article of interest to me was the author: Dr. Robert J. Wells. Dr. Wells is the Deputy Division Head of Pediatrics for MD Anderson Hospital in Houston, Texas and is nationally recognized as an expert in acute myeloid leukemia. So, I decided to email Dr. Wells regarding Brady’s case and here is what he had to say: I am sorry to hear that your son is not doing well. The physicians who you have consulted are a very experienced group and their institutions are all very well respected. “Bi-phenotypic” leukemia is a somewhat vague term in some cases so I would need more information about how/why this term would apply in your son’s case before making any comments on it. I would say that I am a little more hopeful of a response if your son had 8% blasts with AML than if he had ALL. Some old data from AML studies indicated that patients who had 6 to up to 15% blasts did as well as those with <5% — the idea being that we could not really tell “good” blasts from leukemia cells using light microscopy and what we were really seeing was a recovering bone marrow — similar to what we see now if we give patients granulocyte colony stimulating factor. If you wish I could have our hematopathologists (and me) review the diagnostic bone marrow as well as the flow cytometry and cytogenetics as a next step. Needless to say, this is just about the best news we have heard in several weeks. Sherrie will be sending Dr. Wells all the information he needs and we will get his input into Brady’s diagnosis ASAP. The idea that 8% blast is not necessarily bad is just excellent news. On a different topic; Sherrie has been a bit under the weather and spent most of today in bed. I have mentioned in the past, I don’t know how she is able to cope with everything and I guess it finally caught up with her. I hope she spends tomorrow resting and gets her strength back as both Brady and I need her more than she will ever know. So, that’s it for tonight; I will write more tomorrow but until then please keep the prayers, thoughts and hugs coming to Brady and add a couple for Sherrie as well… P.s. Thank you Aunt Ellen for the gigantic Aflac duck, I think it’s twice the size of Brady…“8 Years Later—Still No Cure for Pediatric Cancer” is a series of posts revisiting the journal kept by Sherrie and Michael Wells during the cancer diagnosis and treatment of their son, Brady Michael. Hopefully these entires will provide an understanding of the journey families face when dealing with these horrific diseases and of the important work the Hugs for Brady Foundation does.