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Don't get hung up on the numbers!
Hi Eli,
I wascdignosed in 2001 and have been treated with vidaza and enbrel for almost 2 years now. It can certainly work for longer as some people have been on it for a number of years before it was formally approved. Also, I note that you are quoting the HGB to the nearest 10th. You can get analysis paralysis that way. When a CBC is done, the pathologist does a count of 200 cells on a slide. The composition of the slide isn't uniform all the way so a count in one area is going to be different from another on the same slide. Same with BMB's. The excess blasts are usually implied +- 2 so a number like 6% may be as high as 8% or as low as 4%.
More important is to watch the trend over time. How long Nellie will do well on vidaza is a function of a number of things. If she has responded within the first 4 months, the outlook is for it to work for a long time. Other people take longer, for example, me. I didn't start to respond until the 12th month. Odds are I will need some other therapy sooner rather than later.
Good news is that they're working on a number of cocktails, one of which I hope will be available to me when vidaza stops working. The pace of medical discovery is accelerating, so stay hopeful. 
Steve
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Steve Kessler,Age 71, Dx 3/2001, Currently AML converted from MDS, 5q-, 11q23, Negative response to Aranesp, Revlimid. Partial response to Vidaza in the past. On a study using ON1910.NA, counts too low to go to Stanford on schedule.
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