velcade (round two - cycle five)

Some good news today with the arrival online of my latest blood test. The free light chain count shows that adding cyclophosphamide to my weekly chemotherapy regimen of bortezomib (Velcade) and dexamethasone has had the desired effect. The number of kappa free light chains had risen from 115 in June to 130 in July to 146 in August. After the first five weeks with the addition of cyclophosphamide this has dropped to 131. Yay! By the way, the reason that the free light chain count is the main measuring stick for me is that I have been diagnosed with Free Light Chain Myeloma (there is an earlier blog post about this here).

I began the fifth 35 day cycle (of the second round of eight) on Velcade this week. There do not seem to be any additional side effects from the addition of cyclophosphamide. I am still mainly coping with the side effects of the steroid dexamethasone each week. So long as the treatments continue to be effective I will continue through the eight cycles that have currently been planned and funded. My next appointment with my doctor is scheduled for November when we'll discuss the next steps when this set of treatments concludes. In the meantime, it is good to know that the numbers are moving down instead of up!

It is also good to see that researchers are continuing to make new discoveries about multiple myeloma. Here is a link to some of the latest news: Cancer researchers discover root cause of multiple myeloma relapse. I am very fortunate to live at a time when new discoveries like this are leading to effective treatments for myeloma (and, concurrently, amyloidosis).