Good luck with your treatment, Brandybux. Keep us posted.
Thank you for your well-wishes. I am convinced that "good luck" is the unbeliever's term of art for what I would call the good will of my Father in heaven, the Father of my Lord Jesus Christ.
Now, this is not inconsistent with His using any agents He pleases to effect the good will He shows us sinners. Agents, for example, as my oncologist.
As for answering your query, here's the very short report:
1. I am presently undergoing "conventional" chemotherapy (losing hair, losing a bear I've had for over 50 years, etc.) to "clear out the junk in your torsod" (my oncologist's way of putting things).
2. I'm simultaneously taking one of those targeted drugs.
hA PET scan last week showed almost complete remission. I will continue both strategies for another nine weeks, then a subsequent PET scan to verify what we hope will be a complete remission, knowing (of course) that this simply means no cancer is detectable. We can bet the bank that it's still there, lurking somewhere, waiting to return in a far more drug-resistant form.
Then we hit it with CAR-T. This has been tried with five others aross the country, and none show any cancer for many, many months thereafter. They appear to be cured, to judge by this cancer's behavior with conventional therapies, including stem-cell transplants.
I've had a generous and blessed life - wonderful wife of 40 years, four lovely daughters, two upstanding and productive sons-in-law, six (so far) delightful grandchildren. I'm rich, rich, rich in what really matters. I have no fear of death, but would prefer to see my wife safely in heaven before me.
So, really, I can't lose, no matter what happens. I am very interested in this research into novel and promisng cancer therapies, as they seem to be advancing most rapidly in immune-system cancers. It would be fun to show my grand kids a case-study about their grandfather, reporting a cure of CLL with Richter transformation through some cutting-edge novel therapies! My name wouldn't be in the article, of course. But, I could tell them "That's your Poppa he's writing about!" That would be thick icing on the cake.