Late last night Tyler’s doctor called us with wonderful news! The flow cytometry results of Friday’s bone marrow aspirate showed that the first round of chemo was very successful! The number of leukemia cells left in his bone marrow is less than 0.1%, which the smallest number they can detect!
We had been told to hope for numbers less than 5%, but not to be too surprised if Tyler didn’t reach that due to his FLT3-ITD being so resistant to chemo. So less than one tenth of one percent is an AMAZING outcome!
So what does this mean? Well, he still has to have his bone marrow transplant. This is because with FLT3-ITD, the undetectable leukemia cells that remain are aggressive and will duplicate, causing Tyler’s leukemia to come back.
But the great news is that because the chemo was so effective this first go-around, Tyler has a much greater chance of his bone marrow transplant being a success! The second course should keep the cancer cells very low. They expect to do a third course, while they complete arrangements for the bone marrow transplant. Then, the transplant itself will hopefully attack any remaining cancer and put him into life-long remission!
Another reason we are so relieved by these initial results is Tyler wouldn’t have even been a candidate for the life-saving transplant if he had more than 5% leukemia cells.
He still has a long road ahead with the transplant and then all the limitations of life post-transplant, but we are thrilled beyond words with this very encouraging news!
Happy 15th birthday, Tyler!!