Luke had his t-cells drawn Tuesday of last week.  The t-cells are a type of white blood cell and are removed using the same type of pheresis machine used to donate platelets.  The procedure took around 8 hours.  The picture is the t-cell product.  The pinkish stuff in the middle are his t-cells, the lighter colored stuff on top are platelets and the red on the bottom are red blood cells. 

Following the t-cells procedure Luke was started back on chemo.  They tried to give him Erwinia but he had an allergic reaction and they had to shut it down after a few minutes and shoot him up with Benadryl.  Erwinia I’d describe as an indirect chemo.  It breaks down a specific protein leukemia cells are believed to need to grow and multiply.  Without the protein the leukemia cells growth is inhibited.  After recovering from the reaction to the Erwinia, Luke left the hospital around 9 PM. 

Luke was back in clinic Wednesday morning.  Luke met with Dr. August, the chemo doctor on the trial team at CMH, and it was decided to let him get back to Houston and make a decision in Houston on trying Erwinia again.  Luke rested the rest of Wednesday and we headed back to Houston on Thursday. 

Friday he was at the MDA clinic and it was decided to try Erwinia again.  The results were the same as KC.  He had an allergic reaction.  The Erwinia was stopped and he was shot up with Benadryl.  Luke was getting Erwinia because he was also allergic to another Erwinia type drug.  He had gotten Erwinia dozens of time before without a problem, but it is not uncommon for someone to develop hypersensitivity after multiple doses.  He’s back in MDA clinic Monday for Vincristine and its wait and see what they want to do since he can’t tolerate Erwinia.  

The overall plan from here is for Luke to get maintenance chemo until his t-cells are ready to be reintroduced into his system.  Novartis is the t-cell technology provider and a date needs to be scheduled with them to process the t-cells.  Dr. Myers next time slot for Novartis was mid-April.  Processing takes three weeks so once the cells go to Novartis Luke will likely be schedule a return to KC and receive the t-cells the first week of May.  It’s expected he will be in KC for a month for t-cell reintroduction.

Just an overview of the clinical trial.  They will extract Luke’s t-cells and genetically modify them to introduce a receptor on the surface of the t-cell,  That receptor will attach to a C19 protein that is on the surface of the leukemia cells.  Attaching to the leukemia cell it is hoped that the t-cell kills the leukemia cell. 

On the bright side, this past Saturday, the sisters had a surprise for Luke.  All of his sisters were in town and before going to KC we had gotten tickets to see Brad Paisley at the rodeo.  Paisley is a Belmont graduate where Luke is in school.  After getting tickets Luke’s sister’s Beth and Kendall took it upon themselves arrange for Luke to meet Paisley before the concert.  They do good work!  There were about fifty people in the meet and greet line and the six of us were directed to the end of the line.  After everyone else left the greeting room Luke was invited in to meet Paisley.  Luke and Paisley talked for 5-10 minutes covering music and Belmont.  After Paisley’s entourage took a few pictures Paisley left to perform and we were told to follow through the back passages of NRG stadium.  Paisley went out to the stage in the middle of stadium in a pickup truck and we were led behind the pick up to the stage where we watched the concert 20 feet from the stage in what they called guitar world – the area where they kept all the guitars for the performance.  It was a great Saturday evening which was closed out with crawfish.  I don’t know who Beth and Kendall got hold of to pull it off but WOW did they pull it off.