Pretty cool, right? For humans, they have already completed Phase One. Atticus got into the Phase 2 trial after a year ago (a year? wow) lobes in his lungs were growing and when he had surgery to take them out, sent to pathology, it came back as osteosarcoma (no surprise, but still heartbreaking), which meant he was in his third recurrence. “Luckily” because of the recurrence, he was eligible for the Phase 2 trial which would be going through OHSU Doernbecher.
The treatment involves giving him Listeria, which now involves the immune system that I also can read and kind of understand, but I can’t write a summary of it! So, a nice dose of listeria, then give him an antibiotic drip at the end of the day, and then he takes more antibiotics for the next seven days.
Today, we sit here in the hospital from about 0830 to about 1900 which makes for a long day. Today is also the start of his last cycle, which means this is the first of the final four! It will be 48 weeks when finished. As with the other treatments, they will be monitoring him for the next five years. We hope that this will make a significant change in how pediatric osteosarcoma is treated and even while miserable, Atticus was glad to be a part of this. I was too because you know, the possibility of him dying might be less.
There are a LOT of rules around this trial, as I’m sure most trials do have. He had to sign a bunch of paperwork, about what he is not allowed to do while on treatment. In the hospital too, taking vitals every 30 minutes, rules about how far away the treatments can be, can’t miss by a day, it’s quite something. Usually, I like to pretend it’s not happening and just do what they tell me to do. Sadly, I do know what is happening and it’s scary that even though it will be over in three more infusions, it’s never over. It’s a constant dark cloud floating around taunting us, ready to throw new bricks at our heads.
Also, just wanted to show the press release that came out in 2021: