Call Me Mickey

As in Mickey Mouse. Somehow in my diligent research about Erbitux, I missed the part that said it was made partially from mouse antibodies. ERBITUX™ (Cetuximab) is a recombinant, human/mouse chimeric monoclonal antibody that binds specifically to the extracellular domain of the human epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). ERBITUX is composed of the Fv regions of a murine anti-EGFR antibody with human IgG1 heavy and kappa light chain constant regions and has an approximate molecular weight of 152 kDa. ERBITUX is produced in mammalian (murine myeloma) cell culture.

I don’t have a problem with this and when I think about it, it makes sense – and it certainly explains my recent cravings for cheese and the need to run around mazes. Actually, I discovered this while reading an article in CURE magazine. It was talking about a new, fully human monoclonal antibody called Panitumumab which will soon be a competitor to Erbitux. They say that the majority of side effects people experience from Erbitux is due to an allergic reaction to the mouse antibodies so there should be fewer side effects from a completely human antibody. Woohoo!! However, in the little data that has been released the 2 biggest side effects of Panitumumab are rash/acne and diarrhea….Oh well.

It’s in the final stages of clinical trials and not FDA approved yet so I won’t be asking to switch. I may investigate and see if I can get in on a clinical trial or compassionate use program. No drug company will spend the money to do a clinical trial for appendix cancer or pseudomyxoma peritonei since there are relatively few cases out there and it really isn’t something on anyone’s radar screen (read: no money to be made here…)

Not much else to report. Side effects are still hanging around – for some reason the dry skin and rash on both my eyes got a little worse this week forcing me to slather on moisturizer every few hours followed by hot compresses on my eyes. Sandostatin finally arrived on Saturday so I’ve been rebuilding up my system with this twice a day. We’re still having some problems with bruising and I now have 6 black and blues from the last 6 injections – good thing I’m not diabetic! We’re just hoping this does the trick. Or at least gets me out of double digit numbers in daily bathroom trips.

I am enjoying my first week off from Erbitux treatment and being able to eat on a Wednesday. Had a busy, but fun long weekend – finally able to see and catch up with a lot friends we haven’t seen in weeks or months. Boston fireworks were the best we’ve seen in years, though we all agreed that 10:30 is much too late to be out on “school” night.

Later….