Briefly - Antibodies are what attach to "bad" things which then signal to macrophages and or "trained" (via prior exposure) immune cells to kill the invader (i.e. pathogen). For the CALR mutation, antibodies have been developed to attach to the mutated protein. At this point I am aware of 2 products currently undergoing human trials. One this the antibody alone, and from my understanding mainly just regulates production (I would guess similar to other cytoreductive agents (HU, Jakafi, etc)) but would likely not have the side-effects of lowered RBC, etc. as it is only attacking the specific CALR mutated cell. The second is the antibody that is also attached to another "killer" immune cell, that when attached to the CALR mutant cell will then kill the cell. This called a Bispecific Antibody (or you may see as a BiTE treatment = Bispecific T-cell Effector). From what I have seen, the first product (by Incyte) has a very high tolerance level and early results look good. The BiTE treatment should be more effective, possibly with greater potential side-effect risk (From Johnson & Johnson).

This is my best lay interpretation of these technologies. But, I will not claim to have all the details exactly correct - that is where you need to work with your specialist. For the phase 1 trial, I believe the number of patients is a total of 220 worldwide and for my trial site is a total of 9; so I would expect that the number at and center would be similar. What would be interesting to know would be the criteria that are used to determine final dosing. My final dose will be fairly low compared to another that I have has contact with. I only have ET, they have MF.

Hopefully once I get my dose settled in and "routine" maybe my symptom load (mostly severe fatigue) will go back a few years and my "normal" will be more enjoyable - as the song goes - "I'm much to young to feel so damn old"!!!