Great News!!!!

We have been a while in writing, but want to give everyone an update on Bryan. We were at Moffitt Cancer Center last week to find out the results of his Bone Marrow Biopsy he had done the end of March. It was Great News. His doctor stopped us in the waiting room to tell us that he is in Complete Cytogenic Response. Here is what that means...There are three stages of improvement with CML.

1 - Hematologic Response = the blood counts have returned to normal
2 - Cytogenic Response = the cells look normal without the mutated chromosome visible
3 - Molecular Response = this is the most sensitive test they have developed to show any DNA changes and is measured by the number of zeroes in a formula 0.000000 is as low as it can detect and when it is all zeroes it is considered in complete remission. This is the point where you just continue on medication to keep it suppressed to undetectable levels.

So, Bryan had achieved complete Hematologic response back in December when his blood was looking normal, or at least his White Blood Cells and Red Blood Cells, for some reason his platelets still remain low. Goal #1, expected by 3-6 months, Bryan achieved in ~6 weeks.

He has now hit the second goal, Complete Cytogenic Response, his counts went from 100% of the cells were cancerous and abnormal to 0%. None were seen. Goal #2 is expected to be achieved by 12 months, Bryan hit it in 5 months, but only 3 months on the medication.

We are in a "Major Molecular Response" his reading is 0.000026. Two more zeroes to go. A Major response isn't even expected until 18 months of therapy, but here again he hit it in 3 months.

The best news is that the faster a person responds to therapy the better prognosis they have. So because Bryan has responded so quickly from such a high risk beginning the doctor said he has pretty much a 100% chance of no progression of the disease or recurrence!!!! His doctor is even using Bryan's case in studies for this new medication, promoting it's use as a first line therapy for newly diagnosed patients.

We were also concerned about him getting another form of cancer later on, and the doctor said that CML unlike other leukemias has zero associations with other types of cancers. His risk is no higher than any other person in getting any other type of cancer.

Overall, we are thrilled and feel so eternally grateful for how blessed he has been. Bryan will post later about his new job and feelings, etc. We just wanted everyone to know the latest. Sorry, I'm so dry in my writing. It is still hard for me to express much more, emotions still run pretty high and I'm trying to process. Thanks again for everyone's prayers and help of all kinds. We have felt so much love and support through this all.