Trial Drug, First Labs

I went into the local clinic this morning for a blood draw. They faxed the results to me this afternoon. Here is a table showing several CBC values on three different dates:

	MOHPA	Mayo	SMG
CBC	Dec 26	Mar 3	Mar 14	Minimum
WBC (leukocytes) K/uL	3.9	5.6	4.8	2.0
NE# (neutrophils) K/uL	2.2	3.5	2.1	1.0
PLT (platelets) K/uL	188	211	220	50
RBC (erythrocytes) K/uL	4.44	4.62	4.50
HGB (hemoglobin) K/uL	14.4	15.4	14.9

The three counts with a "minimum" value are the ones that Mayo is particularly interested in watching, because the CC-4047 trial drug may eventually depress those numbers, as does the analogue drug Revlimid. The minimum counts shown are well below the reference range in each case, and if any of those three counts falls below its minimum the protocol will be changed for me, or, eventually, I could even be dropped from the study.

But so far so good - these tests don't show a convincing drop in any of the three critical counts. They were performed at three different laboratories: Minnesota Oncology (MOHPA), Mayo, and Stillwater Medical (SMG), so they may not even compare very well. Indeed, the different laboratories do have different reference ranges for many of the counts. However, the next two blood draws will be at SMG, so those should be comparable. Even so, I know that my WBC bounces all over the place, ranging from 3.7 to 5.6 in the past 18 months, so one dip may not be of great concern; it's the longer-term trend that will matter.



Recent breakfast: Organic irish oatmeal with organic flame raisins, banana, papaya, organic walnuts, organic ginger, blueberries, organic nonfat milk.


Recent dinner: Wild-caught Alaskan salmon with organic yogurt, organic sweet relish, organic mixed vegetables, watermelon.