We've been waiting all week to find out which clinical trial Adrienne will start. So as not to be too annoying, we've been taking turns calling each day and each day, they said they'd call by the next morning. There were a few issues that complicated things. Many trials exclude patients who have had allo (donor) transplants, some exclude patients who have had an auto transplant, and Adrienne has had both. The other issue turned out to be her heart heart and lung damage from previous treatments since one of the drugs has shown heart and lung damage in mice.
Adrienne will be getting a drug called SB-743921, which is a type of kinesin spindle protein (KSP) inhibitor. It is "a novel small molecule therapeutic targeting human mitotic kinesins for applications in the treatment of cancer and other diseases." Don't worry, we don't really get it either but the basic idea is that it inhibits a protein that cancer cells need to divide, and therefore grow. This is given as an IV treatment every two weeks. Adrienne will try it and we'll decide if she should get a port later. Right now, she's enjoying being port free. She also has to get a bone marrow biopsy for the trial, not pleasant, but not too awful either. We've requested sedation since they don't generally sedate adults for the procedure.
It's getting really hot in New York, just in time for the holiday week. The heat combined with the cardiac meds really bother Adrienne as they make her blood pressure drop so she's doing everything she can to stay indoors, though she can't avoid the outdoors altogether. At least she has air conditioning in her dorm.
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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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