Happy new year to all our faith4fabian followers!
The analogy of a tennis match comes to mind – hence the title – as I report to you the wonderful news that Fabian’s second bone marrow aspirate since the T cell infusion showed no increase in MRD, following the significant drop last time. This is perhaps more meaningful than the previous reading as it confirms that immunotherapy alone is destroying and holding back the cancer. In research terms, I guess this is the best outcome the clinical trial team could have hoped for and certainly our talismanic consultant is elated with Fabian’s progress. The nervous waiting and wondering between each aspirate result, though, is emotionally exhausting, so upon hearing it, we didn’t leap for joy with whoops of delight but simply felt like a huge internal burden had been lifted at least for another month. A relief too, for the other children. Oli is back at Uni now but a great boost for her as she faces some tough biomedical exams. Doctors remain unsure as to the durability of the T cells; a key indicator of this will be continued absence of B cells leading to a low immunoglobulin level, though that can be replaced artificially. Somehow I wished I’d paid more attention to haemotology at school..
So back to my tennis analogy, it feels like this going to be a five setter with leukaemia having taken the first two sets (through relapse) but prayer and treatment now leveling the match and despite all the rain we’ve had, it hasn’t delayed play!
The dogged film crew remain on hand to capture every key moment. Hours spent waiting for an expected call from our consultant are par for the course. Here is Fabian posing with some of their impressive camera equipment.
