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My Odyssey Print E-mail
Written by Dr. Mel   
Tuesday, 28 February 2006
Article Index
My Odyssey
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In my case, I had an early 3- month chemo treatment of Melphalan and Prednisone…a small low dose version which seemed to do little for me, but the cancer protein marker was going down from about 3.2 to 2.5. I began taking Aredia, the bisphosphonate, which years later proved to be a big problem for me. I’ll explain later.  And I was taking Epogen shots for my low hematocrit numbers. But, I was on the air full time after just a one-month sabbatical, and although the pain continued, I could get around. The disease seemed relatively stable for about a year, but in the middle of 1998, the pain and cancer protein level were on the march. Something aggressive needed to be done. My colleagues at the TV station have always been supportive of me. They have put up with a lot. Yet, that year, I was voted one of the employees of the year and sent off for a cruise to the Caribbean. My doctor waited for me to return before sharing the “bad” news that we were at a crossroads, and the disease has become far more active. For me, it already seemed active enough. I was shrinking by the week. Actually, since the initial diagnosis, I have shrunk more than 7 inches. But I guess that is OK. I am still well above ground. The question at the time was what treatment direction I might take. Cooper is a transplant specialist, and that seemed to be up there as a high priority for me. Yet, the small dose of chemo didn’t show that I had a lot of promise with that type of therapy, and I was looking for an alternative.

 

It was at that time, fall 1998, when a story came out in USA Today, about a bad old drug that might have an application for being a new form of targeted cancer therapy. The drug was called Thalidomide. The Thalidomide story is a remarkable one, and one that shows how a spouse can step in and make a huge difference in not only the life of a love one, but also countless others.

 

Beth Wolmer’s physician husband was in his last stages of the disease while being treated at the University of Arkansas. Beth combed the literature, the country to find something that might help her husband. At the time, Dr. Judah Folkman at Children’s Hospital in Boston was discovering the important of anti-angiogenesis in suppressing tumor growth. Angiogenesis is the process where blood vessels are extended to tumors and allow them to grow and spread through the body. Anti-angiogenesis cuts off the blood supply. Beth called Folkman and asked if he had anything on the shelf with those anti-angeogenic properties that might be tried for myeloma. He wasn’t positive but thought that Thalidomide might help. He talked with Dr. Barlogie at the University of Arkansas, and Barlogie set up a small trial with three of his patients – including Wolmer. Unfortunately, the Thalidomide did not work for Wolmer. He died. But the other two patients had a dramatic reversal in their disease, and a larger experiment was set up for about three dozen end-stage patients. This was in the spring of 1998. For about a third of the patients, the results showed an impressive reduction of myeloma cells, and soon after, the story caught the eye of the press. The drug was banned around the world earlier because it was used as a sedative for pregnant women and was responsible for horrendous birth defects. But it did seem to have this ability to starve a growing cancer cell, and likely other properties that contributed to the shrinking of the tumors. It also was able to work for those with leprosy, and the FDA had approved its use for that disease. So, it was available again in this country, and because it had been approved for one disease, a doctor could write an off-label prescription for another. I could get it, I just had to convince my doctor. 
 
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