Hi all,
I've posted a few times – we're up in Seattle and my Dad has brain mets and one tumor in his lungs. He's also BRAF negative and so we've seen Dr. Thompson at SCCA twice in order to help us chart a treatment plan. In any case, last week Dr. Thompson recommended my Dad start Keytruda/Pembro as his first-line treatment (now that his whole brain radiation is complete). It did take a week of pushing but his insurance, Regence Medicare Advantage, did approve him to go directly to pembro without going on ipi first. Hurray! Wanted to share that news with others out there!!! Our local cancer center is actually administering pembro (their first time ever to do so) and I had the pharmacist look up pembro in the NCCN compendium in order to support our claim as well as the doctor had to advocate strongly too. Now, we're really hoping that this drug works… Saying lots of prayers!!!
Also, we did ask Dr. Thompson about the ipi/nivo combo and SCCA's track record with it (for background, SCCA is Seattle Cancer Care Alliance which includes the UW and Hutch). He said that when they initially heard about it, they were very excited and switched a number of patients to that protocol. Many got very, very sick, however, and so they have actually pulled back on using that as a default treatment option for Stage 4. He said that it overtaxed the entire staff of the melanoma clinic and that they are only starting to dip their toes back into prescribing it for select patients (and especially when other treatments haven't worked). Found that interesting and thought it was worth sharing.
All the best to everyone out there fighting this disease! I am so appreciative for the advice and genuine support on this message board!!!
Carrie
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