CC-4047 Study at Ten Weeks

Yesterday morning I had the blood draw for ten weeks in the trial of the new drug CC-4047. Here is a table showing several CBC values on four different dates including yesterday:

	SMG	Mayo	Mayo	SMG
CBC	Mar 28	Apr 03	May 01	May 15	Minimum
WBC (leukocytes) K/uL	5.3	7.7	6.0	4.9	2.0
NE# (neutrophils) K/uL	2.6	4.98	3.26	1.7	1.0
PLT (platelets) K/uL	232	303	243	251	50
RBC (erythrocytes) K/uL	4.54	4.42	3.95	4.32
HGB (hemoglobin) K/uL	15.0	15.1	13.5	14.4

SMG = Stillwater Medical Group in Stillwater, MN
Mayo = Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN

Dr. L at Mayo is especially interested in the top three counts. If the CC-4047 trial drug causes any of those three to fall below its displayed minimum, the protocol will be changed for me, or, eventually, I could even be dropped from the study. Leukocytes are down a bit and neutrophils are down more, actually below the reference range, but both are still within the normal range of fluctuation observed over the past five years. Good.

I am also interested in the other two. RBC and HGB are always near the low edge of the range for me, and in fact RBC is still below the reference range. But it is up slightly, so my non-medical opinion is that it is stable too. Good.

I left out one set of numbers, taken April 18 at Stillwater Medical Group (SMG). Those showed a lower value for WBC than I have ever had in the last five years, and higher values for RBC and HGB than I have had. My local Dr. L at SMG seems to agree that those are NOT my numbers; there was a mixup somewhere. He is also concerned about the OTHER person, who may have gotten MY results, which probably would have shown a sudden movement in the direction of anemia but no problem with the white counts.

Bottom line: Never make an important treatment decision based solely on ONE set of labs, especially if those labs are inconsistent with other recent ones.



Lunch of leftovers: Hearty chicken soup with free-range chicken, organic carrots, organic peas and more; organic brown rice pasta with organic corn, organic tomato and more; free-range bison with onions and organic carrots.