November 11 - a time for reflection
Here is the podcast to this week This week, I got a blessing of a wonderful birthday gift a little early, this week Nick Gemma, MD and his staff worked on and got approval of IDHIFA. This is a recently approved targeted therapy for the very genetic defect I have which has caused the myelodysplastic syndrome in me. That is, a deletion in IDH2 - (isocitrate dehydrogenase 2 enzyme - and this is an enzyme in mitochondria). This deletion prevents the demethylation of DNA -- practically speaking, this prevents immature stem cells (or blasts) from maturing into the cells that produce white blood cells, red blood cells and platelets. This is quite COOL in that this is a targeted genetic treatment for me. Great news! Thank GOD! Today is also Veterans Day - please listen to today's podcast!