Tag Archives: G1202R

Branching out

Posted on October 5, 2019 | 13 comments

So. The goddess came through.

First we reviewed my scans and discussed the findings:

Sub-solid mass like opacities in the left upper lobe have increased in size and attenuation since the prior study as described.

Persistent and slightly increased groundglass and interlobular septal thickening in the basilar left lung, suggestive of lymphangitic carcinomatosis. 

Additional sub solid nodules in the left lung are stable or slightly increased in size compared with the prior exam. 

Slightly increased small loculated left pleural effusion.

No surprises there and I am grateful that the word slightly predominates. It is clear where this trend is going but it would also seem that we have time to figure out what the best approach shall be.

First, I am to start nebulizing in an attempt to address my bronchorrhea–the source of the persistent crackle in my left lung. And should it get worse, there is the option of combining pemetrexed with lorlatinib–which would mean leaving the trial and getting lorlatinib by prescription. Avastin could be added to the mix for possibly greater efficacy. Alice is going to start the ball rolling in that direction so that I can apply for financial assistance to help pay for the deductible on lorlatinib–just in case. However pemetrexed kicked my butt energy wise when I was on it seven years ago, so this course will only be as needed.

Most exciting is the news that Alice is going to be opening her own trial at MGH in a couple of months–combining lorlatinib with a MEK inhibitor–binimetinib. She feels this is something that could be effective in my case, so it is my first choice.

Also encouraging is what has been going on behind the scenes in Alice’s lab. My last biopsy identified three secondary acquired mutations. One, G1202R, I had previously and lorlatinib is likely at least somewhat effective against that yet. The other two are newly acquired: S1206F and G1269A. S1206F is rare; Alice has not seen it in any of her other patients. However G1269A is becoming a more common mechanism of resistance to ALK inhibition, along with G1202R.

Alice then shared with me that they have been attempting to make models of all the possible combinations of my three mutations, so as to test drug against them.


I tell you what. This is not the Cadillac of health care, it is the Bugatti La Voiture Noire. It is incredibly humbling to understand the astounding degree of highly personalized effort being expended in the interest of saving my ass. So I damn well better show up.

Yes. That branch just got a little bit thicker–it might even be sprouting some new growth. Alice’s parting words to me were ‘If anyone can do this, you can Linnea.’ To which I responded, ‘If anyone can do this, we can, Alice.’

xo

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Row, row, row the boat

Posted on February 5, 2019 | 17 comments

I am adrift. Not emotionally, not metaphorically–really, truly at sea.

First, my housing situation; non tenable in all respects and something that has weighed heavily upon my mind for weeks now. There will be a solution but at the moment, it is not obvious.

And then, more importantly, my health.

Lungs and Airways: The patient is status post left lower lobectomy. There is essentially stable ground glass opacity in the left upper lobe on image 64, measures 3.7 cm, measured 3.64 cm in November 2018 . There is essentially stable more confluent consolidative opacity in the LEFT lower lung, along the diaphragm, best seen on image 96. Multiple other ground glass and solid nodular opacities are essentially stable, for example in the RIGHT upper lobe on image 46, 51, LEFT lung on images 51, and 89.

As reassuring as my last scan was, the fact remains that I have multiple areas of cancer in both lungs. And, at long last, some information from the biopsy on 12/14/18.

Essentially, in addition to G1202R, I have now acquired two more secondary mutations, both of which are conferring resistance by compromising the ability of lorlatinib to bind. G1269A and S1206—I am not certain of the letter following 6 on the second mutation but it is no longer Y. More importantly, neither of these newly acquired mutations is actionable. As in, there is no next therapy.

Adrift without a paddle, as it were. Or maybe a more apt metaphor is that I am in possession of one paddle yet, but it is busted. And that would be lorlatinib.

I am still expressing ALK, so Alice is hopeful that lorlatinib continues to confer partial resistance. As she put it, the cancer is working very hard to get around it. My job, in a nutshell, is to hold on (stay alive) until a 4th generation ALK inhibitor is developed.

Big sigh. This is the time to think possible not probable. And also to not only get that good china out, but to use it at every damn meal.

xo


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Posted in ALK+, progression, Uncategorized

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Going in

Posted on December 13, 2018 | 43 comments

So tomorrow is the big day; my fifth needle core biopsy.

Rather like a space probe, the purpose of this procedure is to look closer; to learn more about the nature of my cancer so that we may make informed treatment decisions. 

My very first biopsy was the most memorable. Four days earlier I had heard the word neoplasm for the first time. In the days hence, I had read up on lung cancer. The statistics were dismal but my differential diagnosis had left room for other conclusions–a recalcitrant pneumonia or a fungal infection.

When they wheeled me to the biopsy room, the patient before me was a prisoner; cuffed and accompanied by two officers. The physician who performed the procedure first marked the point of entry with a black dot–a dark star of a tattoo. As he guided the needle between my ribs he studied the image on the CT scanner and remarked ‘I am almost certain this is a fungal infection. There is no way a young non smoking woman such as yourself could have lung cancer.’

Post biopsy I was to lie still without speaking for several hours. This was made more difficult by the fact that one of the attendants recognized me–she had been a clerk in a store I patronized–and she, apparently unaware of my restriction, kept trying to engage me in conversation.

The next morning my world turned upside down, when I learned that the radiologist was so very mistaken. Young, non smoking women such as myself could get lung cancer.

My next biopsy was almost three years later. It confirmed metastatic spread and I, a IB at diagnosis, was restaged to IV. However, we would also learn that I was positive for an EMLK 4-ALK fusion gene; ALK+. Four months later I went from having no options to enrollment in my first phase I clinical trial, for crizotinib.

Three years later, prior to enrolling in a phase I trial for ceritinib, I was biopsied yet again, in order to better understand my mechanisms of resistance to crizotinib. An acquired secondary mutation, S1206Y, was identified.

After progressing on ceritinib, I had yet another biopsy. The hope was that I would be positive for PD-L1, making me eligible as an early participant in a clinical trial for immune checkpoint inhibitors. Disappointingly, I was not, however it was revealed that I had now acquired yet another secondary mutation, G1202R. This particular mutation was more problematic than S1206Y, as it conferred resistance to all available ALK inhibitors and it was at this point that I returned to chemotherapy, carboplatin and pemetrexed, until lorlatinib (which shows efficacy against G1202R) became available in trial. Some of the tissue from my biopsy was used to attempt to start a cell line as well as build a mouse model of my cancer, but neither proved successful.

So, here I am, once again at a crossroads and seeking direction. Tonight I will sleep at my friend Diane’s house and in the morning she will drive me to MGH. I look forward to the anesthesia (yeah, I’m kind of a sensory freak and I’m not gonna lie, I like going under 😉 ) but I dread the part where you wake up with a dry mouth and then have to lie there unmoving/not speaking. If the biopsy is uneventful, I will go back home with Diane. However, every other time I have suffered a partial pneumothorax (collapsed lung)–a ticket to one night’s stay in the big house.

It is what it is. I am a traveller who’s had a long run on a clear stretch of road; for that, I am exceptionally grateful. Now it’s time to get my bearings and to figure out the best path forward.

xo 


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But I know more details would be helpful…

Posted on September 14, 2014 | 85 comments

My beautiful daughter on a particularly fateful day.

My beautiful daughter on a particularly fateful day.

Is there some fresh way of saying ‘It’s been a challenging time?”

No, probably not. And besides, challenging is a euphemism; a gentled version of what I wish to convey.

It’s been a difficult year, and the year before that as well. Adjusting to life alone, the continued progression of my lung cancer, a short stint on Xalkori, and then at long last admittance to the PF-06463922 trial. But it has not been without wonder.

About that trial…

I went in with low expectations, as my second secondary acquired mutation (G1202R) is highly resistant to all ALK inhibitors, although results in the lab indicated that my cancer could still respond at higher doses. I entered in the third cohort, at a dose of 75 mg. I was delighted when my cough began to abate almost immediately. But then four days after regular dosing started, I began to experience marked shortness of breath and the sensation that something was caught in my windpipe. I was coughing a lot and some of it was streaked with blood. The following morning there was a small clot of blood in my sputum, but my shortness of breath had abated. However, upon awakening the next day I coughed up yet another small clot. Hemoptysis is one of those things you just can’t ignore, so I sent a text message to Dr. Shaw, who was away at ASCO.

While waiting for a response, I received the phone call from my stepfather Jim telling me that my mother had passed away.

And that phone call was followed by one from a member of the clinical trial team, telling me that I’d been scheduled for an urgent CT scan, in order to rule out a blood clot or pulmonary embolism.

Fortunately my daughter Jemesii had the day off and pretty much insisted on meeting me at the hospital. I was going on adrenalin at this point and don’t know what I would have done without her. In prep I blew two IV’s for contrast (these veins are getting tired) and ended up having a vasovagal response (never happens to me) so I earned some time out in the recliner with some intravenous saline. And then after the scan wrapped up Jemesii and I headed over to the Termeer Center for the results.

And this is when things got really weird. The attending physician said I had neither an embolism or a clot. “How about cancer?” I asked. “Is that all gone?”

“Well, no…but…” she said, and then read from the report:

Lungs and Airways: Status post left lower lobectomy. A mixed
attenuation lesion in the lower portion of the remaining left upper
lung is significantly smaller than on the prior exam now measuring 2
cm x 1 cm x 3.2 cm significantly smaller than on the prior exam where
it measured approximately 8 x 7 cm in diameter. A small right upper
lobe mixed attenuation lesion (series 4, image 330) measures 6 x 7 mm
minimally decreased from prior measurement of 7 x 9 mm. 4 mm region
in the left upper lobe seen on series 4, image 339 is not
significantly changed. A nodule in the right upper lobe seen on
current examination (series 4, image 314) and on prior examination
on 66, image 155 now measures 4 mm in diameter down from 6 mm. And
unchanged region of atelectasis is present in the left upper lung
near the left hemidiaphragm. Additional nodules. Similar in size to
prior exam. No new nodules are seen. There is no evidence of new
pneumonia or pulmonary edema.

I had begun regular dosing six days prior and an 8 x 7 cm chunk of tumor had melted away to a mere shadow of itself. It was just unbelievable.

Stunned, Jemesii and I decided that a good meal and an even better glass of wine was in order. We raised a toast in honor of my mom. And then we raised another to the future.

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