My dad has been a MM patient for close to 6 years now and you are spot-on about the disease's general behaviour..
We started with Lenalidomide and was on it until end of last year with breaks of up to 6-8 months where there was no specific meds.. He's now on a Bortezomib cycle which will end in a couple of months and we hope to have some months free of meds again..
We never did the bone marrow transplant considering his age and stress/recovery he would have to go through.. MM is sympathetic in the sense that people who respond to meds can have a high quality of life even while undergoing treatment (my dad is still a practising medical Doctor). Lenalidomide is a tablet that you take at home while you go in once every week or two for Bortezomib shots.. The treatment is also considerably cheaper in India (still not inexpensive by any measure)..
The overarching fear for MM patients is the fact that its indeed incurable and how far/long we can go on before running out of treatment options.. Personally, seeing such trials and success gives us hope and comfort.. OV looks a promising approach and I hope my dad and others will be able to benefit from it..
Sorry to hear about your dad's illness. MM is a bitch.
If coming to the US is an option, there is a treatment center (Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy MIRT) that is part of the University of Arkansas and is probably one of the best places in the world to get myeloma treatment. I know quite a number of people that have gone there and gotten good results.
It is based in Little Rock (of all unlikely places) I think because it was founded by a grant from Sam Walton, founder of WalMart. He died from MM in 1992.
We started with Lenalidomide and was on it until end of last year with breaks of up to 6-8 months where there was no specific meds.. He's now on a Bortezomib cycle which will end in a couple of months and we hope to have some months free of meds again..
We never did the bone marrow transplant considering his age and stress/recovery he would have to go through.. MM is sympathetic in the sense that people who respond to meds can have a high quality of life even while undergoing treatment (my dad is still a practising medical Doctor). Lenalidomide is a tablet that you take at home while you go in once every week or two for Bortezomib shots.. The treatment is also considerably cheaper in India (still not inexpensive by any measure)..
The overarching fear for MM patients is the fact that its indeed incurable and how far/long we can go on before running out of treatment options.. Personally, seeing such trials and success gives us hope and comfort.. OV looks a promising approach and I hope my dad and others will be able to benefit from it..