Hi Elaine... if your last 2 pcr's read the same then at least the results are not increasing which is a good sign.
as for increasing the dose of Dasatinib, I am not sure. I think I am right in saying that 140mg was the dose that was used at the begining of the trials.
It proved to be a little high for most people and I think that it caused substantial side effects.
But as with all things it depends on the individual.
Drug adherence/drug to drug and food/drink interactions and the individual patient's pharmacokinetics can and do effect the plasma trough levels of these drugs. This means that there is not enough of the drug available to get you into molecular remission and/or keep you there.
With Glivec it is advised that the plasma trough level should be at or above 1000 ng/ml (nanogrammes per mil) if a patient is to obtain optimal response. This should be a constant level ... but I am not sure if this is also the same figure for dasatinib or nilotinib.
If someone experiences a suboptimal response or loses molecular response it may be that for some reason they do not have a consistantly high enough plasma trough level of the drug.
Should your next pcr cause concern, you could discuss the idea of testing your plasma levels with your doctor to make sure that your plasma trough levels are consistantly at the right figure.
Sandy
