← Return to No Evidence of Disease vs. Minimum Residual Disease AML

Discussion

No Evidence of Disease vs. Minimum Residual Disease AML

Bone Marrow Transplant (BMT) & CAR-T Cell Therapy | Last Active: Jun 21 1:20pm | Replies (14)
Comment receiving replies
@sally66

Good morning,
Day +107 today. They sent me home on day 39 which was an unexpected blessing!!
My last biopsy was pretty good other than MRD found microscopically. I'm trying not to be discouraged having to take these chemo pills but I know they will knock it out.
I'm a big faith girl and I know my God has His hand on me. Another biopsy in a month. Otherwise things have gone well. No gvhd! Praise the Lord!💜

Jump to this post

Replies to "Good morning, Day +107 today. They sent me home on day 39 which was an unexpected..."
Lori, Volunteer Mentor | @loribmt | Jun 21 10:07am

Hi Sally. Holy crow, you got to go home on day 39??? You lucky duck! (Haha, mixing it up with my avian friends!). Do you live fairly close to Rochester?

Aw, I know it’s so frustrating to think you’re nearing the finish line with chemo and then finding out that it’s not quite over. It can be helpful to understand why this prescription is necessary.

Gilteritinib is a selective FLT3 inhibitor, meaning it has only one target, the FLT3 mutation. This is one of the nasty drivers behind your AML. I had the same mutation (along with 2 others) and has a higher potential for relapse. So it’s time to rid you of that pest once and for all! The newly implanted stem cells from your donor should help with this. But you’re also still on strong immunosuppressants to hold the new immune system back for a while until the new cells and your body decide they can get along amicably. (Avoiding GVHD)
FLT3, the way it was explained to me, has the ability to elude standard chemotherapy. Some rogue cells carrying the FLT3 mutation can go dormant during chemo, hiding out in the body until it feels it’s safe to emerge! It can also change and adapt to chemo, making it an incredibly resilient beast. In comes Gilteritinib to the rescue. As I mentioned earlier it is a targeted FLT3 inhibitor. You won’t be on this long term. After a period of time, even the FLT3 cells can’t ’hold their breath in hiding’ forever!

So try not to be discouraged! Reading up further on this med, it’s newer and superior to the sorafenib that was suggested for me 6 years ago! This area of cancer research continues to grow and develop! Years ago these targeted drugs didn’t exist. I was able to take the FLT3 targeted Midostaurin during my initial AML treatments, after each month’s round of cytarabine and (idarubicin with induction) which really worked well to keep me in remission until transplant. But midostaurin is for initial AML/FLT3 treatment. Gilteritinib is suggested post transplant or for refactory AML. So now is the time to nip that bugger once and for all.

Have you started the tacro taper yet?

VIEW AND REPLY