12/28/15 –Bristol-Myers Squibb contacted
me today to notify me that I have been approved to receive a year supply of the
PD-1 drug known as Opdivo. This, of course, is awesome news.
So what is OPDIVO? Here is some information from the Bristol-Myers
Squibb website:
OPDIVO® (nivolumab) is a prescription medicine used to treat a
type of advanced stage lung cancer (non-small cell lung cancer) that has spread
or grown and you have tried chemotherapy that contains platinum, and it did not
work or is no longer working. OPDIVO is the first and only immunotherapy the
FDA approved based on two clinical
trials that resulted in longer life for adults
with
advanced NSCLC previously treated with platinum-based chemotherapy.
How is OPDIVO different from chemotherapy?
OPDIVO is an immunotherapy treatment. It’s a type of medicine
that works with your immune system.
What does the immune system have to do with cancer?
Your immune system is designed to protect your body from external
threats like viruses and foreign bacteria, and internal threats like cancer
cells, including lung cancer. However, some cancer cells escape from the attack
of the immune system by sending specific signals. Immunotherapy treatments can
work through the same signals to help the immune system in the fight against
cancer.
This emerging area of medicine is called immuno-oncology, a
field that is helping doctors and scientists understand how immunotherapies
like OPDIVO may help the immune system to fight cancer.
The plan for me is use OPDIVO against my Mantle Cell Lymphoma.
Although there is not a lot of data on how effective it will be with MCL, my
doctors feel the science is excellent and they expect to see similar results
with MCL as has been observed with lung cancer. I am waiting to hear from Dr.
Goy and Dr. Rowley of the plan to provide OPDIVO to me. Maybe I will hear a
little about it when I am at the Cancer Center on 12/31 for my follow-up
appointment.
I am excited for the opportunity to be a part of this cutting
edge treatment. Sure I hope it works from me, but also it would be fantastic if
this leads to something that helps other MCL patients.
Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that
you have received it, and it will be yours.
Mark 11:24
More to come…
