AJ has responded well to treatment and therefor his doc sees no reason to take him off CHOP. Dr. F said he would be crazy to change it since it seems like its working. He did mention that it was going to be administered directly into his bone marrow like in a lumbar punch as well as the IV. I think this is just to target the bone marrow more.
The reason he says that AJ is doing well is because he is feeling better, if the chemo hadn't been working, then he wouldn't feel so good.
Between cycle 3 and 4 we will go down to Houston for a quick visit to do a bone marrow biopsy & PET/CT scan and then see Dr. Fayad a week after that. That way they can really see what the chemo is doing and how he's responding.
PET & CT scan were all negative, no other activity than the one we already know about. :)
There are a couple of tests that Dr. F wants to do if he can get the paraffin block or unstained slides from Seton. Tests: Survivin (which is how it sounds, the cells/tumor prone to survive) and to look for C56 - on outside pathology - outside of the bone marrow. If he is C 56 positive and/or survivin positive then he would be a candidate for bone marrow transplant. (these are just medical terms that he was using and its the molecular built of the cells)
If he has to do a bone marrow transplant, Dr. F said that the donor bank would be our best bet …