Doctor's Orders

Today is Bobby's first day back to work.  He has been off for the last 18 months while fighting this battle against melanoma.  With the help of family, friends, many doctors, science & technology, many other melanoma patients, and through our prayers he has been healed. 

Beating Stage IV melanoma is not something you have heard very often.  In the past, it was next to impossible.  When Bobby was diagnosed in 2007, we knew the numbers and although we tried not to focus on them, the poor prognosis was hard to ignore.  Today, we are resetting the standard.  Melanoma is being treated and patients are seeing improvement.  This is 2010 and we hope that as new drugs continue to be developed, the previous numbers will be irrelevant.

Bobby continues to receive Ipilimumab every 12 weeks.  The future is uncertain.  What we learn from patients like Bobby will be the new standard.  The doctors don't know how to proceed, so they will continue with the same treatment he has been getting. 

Bobby has always been a great teacher, a leader and a role model.  He continues to keep his desire to help others and is doing this with such strength and honor.  Today is what it is all about. 

LET'S GET OVER THIS CANCER AND GET ON WITH LIFE!

Melanoma Research Foundation Newsletter

We were excited when our MRF newsletter arrived today! The article that was written is exciting-it is almost as if we are reading about someone else and we are so happy for that patient and his family.  WOW, it sounds great--and it is!

Bobby was first diagnosed with melanoma in 2007.  At that time, the prognosis was poor and we had few options. Interferon was one option.  Interferon is given for one year and it is a year of feeling like crap.  The statistics show that Interferon will extend the patient's life by about-one year.  One thing that Dr. Sharfman, an oncologist from Hopkins, said to us early in the diagnosis was (regarding Interferon) that even though you lose a year to gain a year, "WHAT IF that is the year that a treatment is found to control melanoma?"   Bobby chose to enter a clinical trial with the hope of better results than Interferon could promise.  We never lost hope that this might be the year that they find a treatment that works.  Ipilimumab was not offered to Bobby in 2007 or 2008, but by 2009 it was at the top of the list as the next drug to be approved to treat melanoma.  That was the year we needed.  In 2007, we didn't even talk about what we might be doing in 2010.

The FDA was supposed to review and hopefully approve Ipi by the end of this year.  We were disappointed to hear that this approval date has been pushed into 2011.  This is a pretty good article that talks about Ipi and its future - Ipilimumab   The brand name for Ipilimumab will be called Yervoy after FDA approval. I found another article which was interesting: Yervoy

Our hope for 2011 is that it will become that year which so many melanoma patients need.