What a rollercoaster...I have held on for a Phase 3 trial that is taking place at Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge and it's been the ultimate heartache and despair just getting on to start with. To give it the official title "BRIM 3: A Randomized, Open-Label, Controlled, Multicenter, Phase III Study in previously untreated patients with unresectable Stage IIIC or Stage IV Melanoma with V600E BRAF Mutation Receiving RO5185426 or Decarbazine"
Once I found out that I had the BRAF Mutated gene we were all delighted that I had actually jumped the first hurdle for the trial. I am currently the only one at Addenbrookes who's on this so that's equally as exciting for them.
Why can't you just give me the drug now? The two arms of the trial are either the drug or decarbazine chemo and I was just wishing for the drug as the chemo didn't look pretty with very poor odds. They gave me a blood test 24 hrs before we were due to start and this showed that I had a very high reading on a liver enzyme which was above the trial protocol. Aaargh..what was causing this. They thought it was probably the pain relief drugs I was taking so I decided to stop them for 24 hrs and switch solely to the TENS machine to hold the pain. I came in the next day and low and behold the reading had halved.
They confirmed the reading and then carried out the randomisation. When they told me I had the drug arm we just cried, punched the air and just could not believe it!
We were on it at last! Unbelievable....
