My Trial which has 3 arms was Unblinded after 3 years 10 months

Hi Donna, I have been very lucky in the side effect department!!! Fatigue has been my constant friends during the treatments, some itching with small rash on chest area from time to time. I also develop Vitiligo on arms and legs, but when it comes to side effects it is a positive one to get, associated with positive responds. The fatigue side effect should be improved if Bristol Myer Squibb gets FDA approval for change from treatments every two weeks to every 4 weeks, FDA is going to rule early next year!!! I usually start having more energy the second week after treatment, so if they go to a 4 week schedule it would make sense that patients would feel kind of crappy 1 week out of 4 instead of 1 out of 2, plus less time spent at hospital and less needles and blood work draws would be a big plus. I hope things go great for your husband!!!Ed 

The team at the Ottawa general couldn't wait to tell me, it started with my nurse asking " so have you heard the news yet?" followed up by the clinical trial ladies asking me "what do you think you have been getting?" They had some fun making me wait for the Oncologist to give me the information. Dr. Song informed me that she recieved an email last week from BMS saying that they were unmasking the last few patients on Checkmate 067. It started to make sense to me later in the day when I started thnking about the math. Ipi arm of the trial around 320 patients would have had 80% of patients progress so they would have been unmasked in the first year or so. The combination part would have had around 50% of the patients have grade 3 or 4 IRAE's so they would have been unmasked in the first year and then those that progressed would have been unmasked. Finally my arm of the trial where 40% of the patients had objective responses, so the other 60% would have over time been unmasked. The thought of working on the lab tech side of things had crossed my mind a few times. Fun thing is I have felt strongly that I have been getting Nivo, based on side effect profile and how quick my scans showed improvement at first scans at 12 weeks. My wife reminds me on a regular basis that I got it wrong (ultra sound) , we didn't want to know the sex of our child but I could have sworn that I saw a penis on the screen. To my suprise a few months later my daughter Kora-Lee was born. The first words that Kora-Lee would have heard in this world was "No way, I was sure it was a boy" LOL

Hi Jenn, feeling like I was in the dark is a good way to describe it!!! I have been telling any one willing to listen at the hospital, that I know for sure that I had been getting Nivo based on how I felt and how well I had been doing on scans. The question that I had was "did I get Ipi?' You know that feeling of, "Ok, what will I be able to move on to next if this stops working". At least now I can think about putting together some kind of secondary(back up) plan, but hoping that it won't be necessary. I read your post earlier and I have my fingers crossed for you that the nodes will just be filled will T-cells and other immune cell and you will get great news of being "NED" . Take care!!!Ed