aspen22

I am so sorry you are joning the melanoma club, but I am so glad to find another member with ITC in the sentinal node. My story is very similar… had a .45mm melanoma removed from my right shoulder blade in April. I had 0 mitotic rate and no ulceration, but was given the option for a LN biopsy since my clark's level was IV. Being a 33 year old mother of four, I decided to do it even though I had a 4% chance of it spreading. To my complete suprise they found a singular isolated cell in my sentinal node which was S100 negative but Melan-A positive. I had a CLND and all came back clear, along with my scans so I am 3A. 

After a ton of research I decided against Interferon and chose to take part in a clinical trial. It's a vaccine where they take 23 different anitgens from melanoma cell lines. I had to go every-other-week for a few months to get 4 injections, but now I am down to once a month. In a few months I wil be down to every three months, until I hit two years (I started this August). It is the POLY 103 vaccine. I decided to go this route becuase it was a phase III trial. The effects are very minimal (I get a little tired for a day or two, and I have reactions at the injections sites which are itchy, red, hard bumps).  A third of all trail particiapnts are on placebo, but I was ok with that since I feel my chance a reccurance is very low. Yervoy was't approved when I had to make the decision to do treatment so I have not studied much on that front. 

Melanoma is so tricky, there isn't a right answer. We just have to make decisions based on how we feel at the time and trust it's the rght answer at the time. I feel very confident that I am doing all I can do, and while the worry of recurrance is always in the back of my mind, I feel like so mmay people who had a wose prgnosis are doing great and never reccured! I plan to be one of those people. 

I am so sorry you are joning the melanoma club, but I am so glad to find another member with ITC in the sentinal node. My story is very similar… had a .45mm melanoma removed from my right shoulder blade in April. I had 0 mitotic rate and no ulceration, but was given the option for a LN biopsy since my clark's level was IV. Being a 33 year old mother of four, I decided to do it even though I had a 4% chance of it spreading. To my complete suprise they found a singular isolated cell in my sentinal node which was S100 negative but Melan-A positive. I had a CLND and all came back clear, along with my scans so I am 3A. 

After a ton of research I decided against Interferon and chose to take part in a clinical trial. It's a vaccine where they take 23 different anitgens from melanoma cell lines. I had to go every-other-week for a few months to get 4 injections, but now I am down to once a month. In a few months I wil be down to every three months, until I hit two years (I started this August). It is the POLY 103 vaccine. I decided to go this route becuase it was a phase III trial. The effects are very minimal (I get a little tired for a day or two, and I have reactions at the injections sites which are itchy, red, hard bumps).  A third of all trail particiapnts are on placebo, but I was ok with that since I feel my chance a reccurance is very low. Yervoy was't approved when I had to make the decision to do treatment so I have not studied much on that front. 

Melanoma is so tricky, there isn't a right answer. We just have to make decisions based on how we feel at the time and trust it's the rght answer at the time. I feel very confident that I am doing all I can do, and while the worry of recurrance is always in the back of my mind, I feel like so mmay people who had a wose prgnosis are doing great and never reccured! I plan to be one of those people. 

I am so sorry you are joning the melanoma club, but I am so glad to find another member with ITC in the sentinal node. My story is very similar… had a .45mm melanoma removed from my right shoulder blade in April. I had 0 mitotic rate and no ulceration, but was given the option for a LN biopsy since my clark's level was IV. Being a 33 year old mother of four, I decided to do it even though I had a 4% chance of it spreading. To my complete suprise they found a singular isolated cell in my sentinal node which was S100 negative but Melan-A positive. I had a CLND and all came back clear, along with my scans so I am 3A. 

After a ton of research I decided against Interferon and chose to take part in a clinical trial. It's a vaccine where they take 23 different anitgens from melanoma cell lines. I had to go every-other-week for a few months to get 4 injections, but now I am down to once a month. In a few months I wil be down to every three months, until I hit two years (I started this August). It is the POLY 103 vaccine. I decided to go this route becuase it was a phase III trial. The effects are very minimal (I get a little tired for a day or two, and I have reactions at the injections sites which are itchy, red, hard bumps).  A third of all trail particiapnts are on placebo, but I was ok with that since I feel my chance a reccurance is very low. Yervoy was't approved when I had to make the decision to do treatment so I have not studied much on that front. 

Melanoma is so tricky, there isn't a right answer. We just have to make decisions based on how we feel at the time and trust it's the rght answer at the time. I feel very confident that I am doing all I can do, and while the worry of recurrance is always in the back of my mind, I feel like so mmay people who had a wose prgnosis are doing great and never reccured! I plan to be one of those people.