Release the hounds!

Hey Friends,
If you’ve been following Dea’s medical adventure these past couple years, then you know it’s been a roller coaster ride. Through so many treatments teased and treatments tried, our heroine has sampled a vast menu of therapies designed to slow the activity of her metastatic breast cancer — which now resides in solid tumors throughout her spine and other places. As you know, after a person’s therapy card gets punched enough times, and the number of therapeutic options starts running thin, s/he may become eligible to participate in clinical trials of newly emerging therapies. And, as we’ve been reporting, Dea’s eligibility arose just around the time when some very compelling new treatments emerged and opened up to pioneering participants. I’m writing to report that Dea’s clinical trial has begun.

Over the last few years CAR T-cell immunotherapy has represented a small revolution in the treatment of some leukemias, showing unprecedented power to extinguish cancerous blood cells from circulation. The prospect of extending this technique to solid tumors has been tantalizing, but it’s also been elusive. In this technique, docs extract a person’s own T-cells, take them back the lab, and genetically engineer them to recognize certain tumor-specific antigens as targets for a high-precision immuno-cleanup. Interestingly, Dea’s tumors are particularly ripe with the very antigen that is targeted by the CAR T-cells in this new study. We’re taking that as a promising sign that this treatment is well matched to this pioneer.

Things are moving quickly and Dea is hanging on like a champion. Last week’s many tests and procedures culminated with collection of the immune cells that will undergo some of the most elegant molecular ‘surgery’ known to humankind. As I write today, Dea’s T-cells are most of the way through that process, they are being engineered to recognize her cell-surface tumor markers, and this Wednesday (tomorrow!) they will be reintroduced to her body. Whenever discussions get to this part of the plan/story I murmur to Dea and Peter, half under my breath, “release the hounds!” And she shoots a look that wordlessly proclaims she is deeply unimpressed by the joke. But I’m rooting for those little hounds.

Wednesday is a big day.
After so many miles, and so many bring-it-on efforts to try so many therapies, Dea’s path will pass into a pretty special realm this Wednesday. As she is reunited with her own carefully prepared immune cells on that day, she will also pass into the company of pioneers who’ve helped to pave the way toward scientific advancement. She’s stepping right into the critical phase of this really big experiment.

Dea hasn’t asked for much during this haul, but she has asked me to ask you: Would you…

• Please pray for her on Wednesday, and through April, as Fred Hutch scientists will be watching her closely to see how her body responds to this experimental treatment.
• Expect her to be virtually incommunicado until May, but please feel free to sign this digital card, and leave any messages you might have HERE on the web site.
  This is her preferred form of communication this month, and she will check it each time she comes up for air!
• Share any photos you may have that capture cool moments of connection with Dea (collection forming below!!). Your photos are, themselves, one inspiring form of prayer. And if you come up with a way to capture your prayers in your photos, send those along too! (Upload instructions at bottom of the gallery).

Stepping into this first week of spring, we are all wishing you a big scoop of renewal and healing, Dea P! Sending you love, strength, and healing during this month’s grand immuno-experiment.

Hoping these photographic reminders of love, connection, and prayer charge your batteries and feed those graceful little hounds every day.

Click on any photo, below, to enter slideshow mode.

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Got more photos of Dea connection? Keep them coming!!
You can add more photos to this collection by uploading them to this Google Photo Album.
You can sign Dea’s digicard here (her preferred mode of communication during clinical trial).