We got the results of Adrienne's hip MRI late last week. It's taken a bit of research to figure out just what is going on. It turns out that Adrienne has osteonecrosis in her hip caused by radiation. This is very similar to avascular necrosis, caused by steroids, but it progresses at a much slower rate, thankfully. We're not sure what the next steps are but hope to learn more in the next few days. Adrienne will probably require surgery at some point but it seems that we have plenty of time to make a decision on that. If she had avascular necrosis, she would likely require surgery right away.
Adrienne gets her first DLI tomorrow. We are counting on this being an uneventful day. As I mentioned last week, they collected more cells from Daniel than needed. Each DLI has a specific dose so there will be cells left over. We're hoping we can freeze those and use the leftovers for a clinical trial using something called "cytokine-induced killer cells," which Adrienne will qualify for when she's 18.
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Adrienne was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Disease in 1996 at age 9. She had multiple relapses, two bone marrow transplants, and a range of chemos and radiation therapies, and passed away on October 1, 2009. We are heartbroken.
Out with the Girls
About Adrienne
- Adrienne
- Adrienne was very much like others with Hodgkin's Lymphoma, the most common cancer in teens and young adults. What was unusual is that she had it for more than half her life and ultimately, it took her life. Hodgkin's is curable for about 80% people, but Adrienne was one of the 20% for whom a cure was elusive. She considered herself lucky since treatments had been there for her with each relapse but she ran out of treatment options and her body just couldn’t take any more. As she said, "Though I’ve now had cancer for most of my life, I no longer plan my life around it; instead, I try to plan cancer around my life." We hope you can take inspiration from her and how she lived her life.
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