You have all been patiently waiting to hear news from our visit to Seattle. It’s been a balancing act between giving you any sketchy information or giving you etched-in-stone information. All the details are not in at this moment. So, I will try and deliver information that is teetering in the middle.

Dave has been accepted to join the Zuma-3 trial at Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. He is only one of twelve who has been selected to participate at SCCA. With an 80 percent anticipated remission rate, this is far better than any other study in which he may be eligible. It is the CAR T-Cell therapy I alluded to in the last blog post. Also important to note – this study is far too new for the research to examine a cure rate.

We received a tentative date of March 18 to begin the process to extract cells and engineer them to become cancer-fighting cells. Although we need to relocate to Seattle for at least two months, the opportunity to participate in cutting-edge medicine is exciting. However, it is quite daunting when one studies the phases of immunotherapy. Because of the intensity of the treatment, I will be the sole caregiver 24 hours a day during chemotherapy, cell infusion, and for several weeks after the cell infusion.

Once the date is confirmed, Dave will discontinue all medication that he is currently taking in order to prepare for the cell collection. Again, this becomes a balancing act because we need the cancer to stay active for the clinical study, but still stay under control. And if he miraculously goes into remission in the interim, he will be ineligible for the study. So, we will be walking a tightrope for the next few weeks. A bone marrow biopsy prior to the cell collection will determine if we walked the medical tightrope successfully.