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Halloween Oncologist Appt

Nothing remarkable. A blood draw was done to check on some levels. Next stop should hopefully be a scan at the beginning of December.

Meanwhile my sister wrote to one of the neurosurgeon authors of the " Outcomes of Melanoma Brain Metastasis Management with Gamma Knife Radiosurgery +/- Ipilumumab study and asked about the dosage levels of Ipilimumab -- was it all the higher (non-FDA-approved) 10 ml/kg often used in clinical trials? As opposed to the FDA-approved 3mg/kg level.

He replied, "Our patients were treated on a variety of trials, some at 10mg/kg and some at 3mg/kg, approximately half and half. This is not too helpful. We've seen some good outcomes with brain mets at either dose (as well as some bad edema, as you well know)." Also, "I do not know of any data that would show a better outcome with the higher dose. There is not always a better outcome for biological therapies when higher doses are delivered, and I cannot predict what might be the case for anti-CTLA4 therapies."

Very interesting! I got the FDA approved dose.

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