Updates

New posts will be coming soon. 

Bulk of Treatments are Over

Well, I have been waiting on one particular test to come back before I posted a blog, but I decided I would just post one.  First order of business: thanks to everyone who came to the benefit auction in Richmond, it was a huge success.  I had a great time, and I think everybody else had a little fun as well.  It is a great help to my family and I, and as I move forward fighting this disease it will help in taking some of the financial pressures off my plate.  I am amazed at the support our small town is able to offer and am truly and greatly appreciative.          

The treatment is beginning to look more and more like a success.  The bulk of the treatment is over, and I will begin receiving booster shots in about a month. My disease has stopped progressing altogether, as is evidenced by all of the different scans they have taken, and some of my tumors have actually shrunk and are beginning to shrivel up and disappear.  I was having a new tumor develop every week or two before I began treatment.  It has been about a month since I finished the bulk of the treatments, and I am able to work through the day, and have a social life again.  When I stop being active at the end of the day, though, my body still gets sore and achy.        

We are waiting on a test to see how my immune system is responding to the treatment.  The greater the immune response, the less often I need booster shots.  The hope is that my immune system has been sufficiently stimulated to continue fighting the disease even after the treatments are complete.  It is similar to other vaccines in that booster shots are needed to keep the immune system “informed” of the disease’s presence.  

Second Week of Round Two

Hello Everyone, 

The weekend has past and I am still trucking along.  I thought each treatment had been treating me better than the first one that made me so sick this second round, but on Sunday it hit me again.  I am still sore in my joints and achy in my muscles, but I have been able to sleep without night sweats and my skin doesn’t burn like it did last week.  Its weird, the night after I receive my treatments I get a bad headache and then I start feeling badly.  Today I still have a headache and my joints are sore, but I feel better than I did on chemo.  I had a treatment today and hopefully I will start feeling better. 

On a more positive note, despite feeling sick, my disease seems to be in good shape.  No new tumors have shown up, and the tumors that I have haven’t progressed. On Friday we are going to measure to see if any of my tumors have shrunk, so I’ll be sure to let you know how it goes.  Thanks for your prayers and support; it definitely helps when I am feeling ill.

Another Round of Treatment

Hi it’s Kevin,

I just wanted to let everyone know how much I appreciate your support.  I am touched by the kind words of my friends, family, and my newfound extended family across the country.  To the people of Fredericktown, Ohio, you should be proud to be a part of such a strong community with such great people.  Thank you so much for your support.

I have begun my second round of treatments.  The treatment schedule is two rounds of treatment separated by a two-week break, and these past two weeks were my break.  I was able to work full time without being sore or exhausted for the first time in about ten months, and last week I felt better than I have for a long time.  

            Starting the second round of treatments has been tough.  The doctor said my body would react more harshly to its second exposure to the adjuvant, and he was right.  On Monday I received the first injection of my second round of treatments.  By Monday evening my entire body was aching, my joints were sore, both knees and even my shoulders hurt, it was horrible.  My skin was warm to the touch, and was extremely tender.  Yesterday I felt a little better, but was still sore and achy all over; I felt just kinda crappy really.

            Today I got my second injection and we will see how it goes.   I will keep you updated.

Kevin Begins Treatment with an Experimental Melanoma Vaccine

We at Vaxco Pharmaceuticals are excited to announce that we have commenced treatment with our vaccine against metastatic melanoma on a patient who has been fighting his disease now for eight years. To provide a support system for the patient and to keep the public informed we are maintaining this blog with updates regarding his progress and his experiences fighting melanoma. Kevin agreed to share his journey through this blog and through regular video interviews conducted internally here at Vaxco. Along with updating the blog, we hope to post clips from these interviews giving Kevin and his family a variety of avenues to share their story.

Kevin was diagnosed with melanoma on April 28^th, 2000 when he was only 24 years old. It was only three days later, on the first of March, that he underwent the first of many surgeries and began his battle with melanoma. Fighting his cancer with a multidisciplinary treatment of surgery and chemotherapy, including an intensive treatment with a drug called interferon, Kevin’s battle with cancer lead him on a long and difficult journey. Most recently Kevin, now 31 years old, began developing tumors sporadically just beneath his skin. After surgical resection of some of these tumors, Kevin again endured another regimen of chemotherapy only to find new tumors were rapidly continuing to develop. It was at this point that Dr. Raj Sadasivan, Kevin’s Oncologist, decided Kevin was failing conventional treatment options and suggested he take a less conventional route. This is Kevin’s story.

After Kevin stopped responding to conventional treatments, an alternative treatment plan had to be developed. It was suggested Kevin undergo experimental treatments with a new vaccine therapy that had been under development for twelve years, but had never been used on a human patient. Kevin and his family were at this point pressed with a very difficult decision. When alternative and experimental treatments are used, the outcomes are not fully understood. So, do they risk dealing with the unknown side effects of an experimental drug that may prove to have little or no benefit? If you are a member of Kevin’s family you do. It is not in their character to passively deal with anybody or anything, let alone Kevin’s life.  Their bravery, love, and courage showed through in this difficult time.

On March 17^th, 2008 Kevin became the first human to be treated with HCI001, a cancer vaccine developed by Dr. Raj Sadasivan. HCI001 is currently going through the application process to be approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for clinical trials, but at this point HCI001 can only be used on a case by case, compassionate use basis. Approval for compassionate use is an avenue by which the FDA gives dying patients with serious illnesses access to experimental drugs that are in the vast pipelines of the pharmaceutical industry. In lab testing and mouse models the vaccine proved to be effective, but it is still unclear the way the vaccine will affect cancerous melanoma cells in the human body or the human body itself.

Kevin’s first injection was received in his right upper-arm, and was administered at Hope Cancer Institute in Kansas City, KS. After all the excitement, nerves and uncertainty leading up to this moment, the first treatment was relatively uneventful. Other than the typical pain associated with an injection in his deltoid muscle, there were no immediately apparent adverse effects. When Kevin returned the following Wednesday, March 19^th, he received a second injection, this time in his right deltoid. At the time of the second treatment, side effects were still unapparent, until Friday night March 21^st. Kevin’s left elbow began to ache with a deep joint pain escalating to a point that Kevin had a difficult time moving his arm, and to Kevin’s chagrin, his family convinced him to contact Dr. Sadasivan for help.  The pain subsided by the beginning of the week and he did experience similar pain in his right elbow on Monday, but this time the pain was much more tolerable. In his left elbow, the severity of pain was associated with his first treatment.  A unique characteristic of the first treatment, Kevin recieved three different injections. The vaccine is actually mixed with an adjuvant, or a substance that enhances the effect of the vaccine, and this particular adjuvant is known to cause joint pain. For the initial treatment, one shot each of the vaccine and adjuvant were given in their pure form, and another shot was given with the vaccine-adjuvant solution. By using three separate injections, the staff at Hope Cancer Institute was able to monitor distinct reactions to the individual parts of the vaccine. Within the combination of these three injections given at the first treatment, Kevin received a double dose of adjuvant in his left deltoid which was responsible for the intensity  of the pain in his left elbow.  

At the end of his first round of treatment, two weeks and six injections, Kevin is feeling “really well.” He is feeling well enough, in fact, to go back to work fulltime until he begins his second round of treatment in two weeks. The joint pain is no longer a problem, but Kevin did experience a mild skin irritation around the injection sites which has also begun to wane.  Kevin says he would rather have some elbow pain and a rash than feel sick and exhausted from chemotherapy. As far as his progress with the treatment, he has had no new development of tumors and the tumors that were present at the onset of treatment are beginning to harden. These changes and his constantly improving quality of life have given Kevin and his family a certain amount of hope that this treatment may have benefit.