Allovectin and Oncovex

My first fight against mel was in the OncoVex phase III trial.  I would go to the office every 2 weeks and have injections directly into 5  tumors in my groin.  The injections felt like bee stings.  By the evening I would have the chills really bad and run a high fever that would last overnight. Within 24-48 hrs I would start to feel good.  My thigh near the injection site would swell and get red and feel warm.  That lasted about 3 days.  The worse side affect was joint pain.  I had it in every joint, all the time.  It was tolerable though.  These were the main side affects you could count on each visit.  The rest of the time I felt really good.

First scans at 3mos. showed disease progression.  At the start I had one met in my liver and by this time there were many.  I also had substantial bone mets .  The tumors in the groin had changed after injection 2.  Some were smaller, some  disappeared so we were very hopeful.  The flip side of the vaccine is what did not work for me.  It was manufactured to also boost the immune system to fight the sattelite mets.  Neither my Dr. nor I recognized the pain in my back and shoulders was the mel because of the positve reaction in the lymph nodes.  We both attributed it to side affects.  Hindsight now.

Karin

My first fight against mel was in the OncoVex phase III trial.  I would go to the office every 2 weeks and have injections directly into 5  tumors in my groin.  The injections felt like bee stings.  By the evening I would have the chills really bad and run a high fever that would last overnight. Within 24-48 hrs I would start to feel good.  My thigh near the injection site would swell and get red and feel warm.  That lasted about 3 days.  The worse side affect was joint pain.  I had it in every joint, all the time.  It was tolerable though.  These were the main side affects you could count on each visit.  The rest of the time I felt really good.

First scans at 3mos. showed disease progression.  At the start I had one met in my liver and by this time there were many.  I also had substantial bone mets .  The tumors in the groin had changed after injection 2.  Some were smaller, some  disappeared so we were very hopeful.  The flip side of the vaccine is what did not work for me.  It was manufactured to also boost the immune system to fight the sattelite mets.  Neither my Dr. nor I recognized the pain in my back and shoulders was the mel because of the positve reaction in the lymph nodes.  We both attributed it to side affects.  Hindsight now.

Karin

My first fight against mel was in the OncoVex phase III trial.  I would go to the office every 2 weeks and have injections directly into 5  tumors in my groin.  The injections felt like bee stings.  By the evening I would have the chills really bad and run a high fever that would last overnight. Within 24-48 hrs I would start to feel good.  My thigh near the injection site would swell and get red and feel warm.  That lasted about 3 days.  The worse side affect was joint pain.  I had it in every joint, all the time.  It was tolerable though.  These were the main side affects you could count on each visit.  The rest of the time I felt really good.

First scans at 3mos. showed disease progression.  At the start I had one met in my liver and by this time there were many.  I also had substantial bone mets .  The tumors in the groin had changed after injection 2.  Some were smaller, some  disappeared so we were very hopeful.  The flip side of the vaccine is what did not work for me.  It was manufactured to also boost the immune system to fight the sattelite mets.  Neither my Dr. nor I recognized the pain in my back and shoulders was the mel because of the positve reaction in the lymph nodes.  We both attributed it to side affects.  Hindsight now.

Karin