Cancer Update: Approved To Continue With Successful Treatment

I have gotten approval from the research team at Mayo Clinic of Rochester, MN, to continue the treatment I have liked for this past year with CCI-779 (mTOR inhibitor, temsirolimus, Torisel). After that one-year clinical trial, I am in "stable condition", the single 3-cm lymph node in my chest not having grown, and my quality of life hardly having been hurt at all - just a little loss of stamina. Other graduates like me evidently are asking to be allowed to continue this treatment until disease progression. So, Mayo has revised its clinical trial protocol to permit this. You might view it as Stage IV clinical trial data gathering about effectiveness and toxicity of long-term exposure to the treatment combination with relapsed MCL patients. The question of how this will be paid for now outside a clinical trial remains to be seen. I like the motto in life, "Don't ask permission, ask forgiveness." We will run the insurance claims through as usual and see if my company continues to be as marvelously helpful and uncomplicated as they have been. If they balk at paying for a treatment not yet approved by the FDA, I will plead my case that (a) Torisel is an approved drug, and (b) we know it's an effective off-label treatment for me because it has stopped my tumor from growing for the past twelve months.

Dennis L. Gibson, Ph.D.