Hi I am 38 years old male from USA. During the annual physical in late December my WBC count came very high 78,000. I had no other symptoms at all . My GP asked for another blood next day to double check and WBC was 80,000 so I was referred to heamtologist . With the Bone marrow biopsy it was confirmed that I have CML. As per the biopsy results there were no Blast cells. BCR Able was 64% and I was prescribed Tasigna ( Nilotinib) 300mg twice a day. since 20th January I have been taking Tasigna.
With in first two weeks all my blood level ( WBC,/rbc/ platelets ) came Normal and after a month my bcr-abl was 14 % . I had no visible side effects at all. I had my another pcr test on May 27th ( after about four months of medication) and my bcr-abl came down to 0.467% . All was going good but all of sudden since last 18-20 days ..I started itching on scalp, etching on different parts of body ..rashes and hives ..couple days were really terrible.. the topical hydrocortisone did help a lot but not a convenient solution as itching was occurred in many a parts of the body.. so I asked my doctor if I could take oral antihistamine drug ..and he says yes..so I took 10 mg Cetrizine and it's working well ..one Cetrizine 10 mg is keeping the rash and itching control for 3-4 days.
Any suggestions or comments regarding your experience with Tasigna or CML over all are highly appreciated.
In August 20 I will have another PCR test..I hope tej bcr-abl will continue to go down.