03/06/10

03/06/10 Well we received good news from Boston, the band that they were seeing was kappa and Joe original disease was lambda there are two different types of light chains, kappa and lambda. Originally, his disease was lambda disease, which was originally confirmed on the bone marrow biopsy, immunofixation electrophoresis, and free light chains. When he returned for his 6 month follow up, his bone marrow biopsy and free light chains were normal. His immunofixation electrophoreses showed a band in the IgG and kappa lane, suggesting that he has kappa disease. However, they know that his disease is lambda and there was no evidence of lambda disease on is evaluation. Therefore, they are now saying he had a complete response at 6 months. They are uncertain of the significance of the IgG kappa. This is sometimes elevated if someone who had a recent infection (such as Zoster) or this may be related to the transplant itself. Obviously they will continue monitoring this band, but they do NOT think that this is the amyloid. We will return to Boston in August and have the evaluation repeated and hopefully Joe will still be in remission and will remain that way for a long time. He will continue to be tested once a year for the rest of his life. Thank you for all your prayers and please keep praying for Joe and all the amyloid patients God Bless and we love you all!