by | Apr 19, 2024 | Uncategorized | 0 comments

Irv's Journey

Irv is a dentist who loves to travel, particularly with his wife to see his grown children and seven grandkids – including identical twins. “Family is the number one thing in life. I can’t stand being without the grandkids,” Irv says, “I monopolize them. A 900 billion dollar lottery win couldn’t be better.”

Hearing the news

He was first diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2016 when on Thanksgiving day he had very concerning symptoms, including blood in his urine, and several tumors on the interior surface of his bladder were removed by his local urologist, who treated him with BCG, but he failed to respond and the tumors came back. He was afraid he was going to lose his bladder.

Participating in ImmunityBio’s QUILT 3.032 study

It was one one Irv’s dental patients who encouraged him to contact Dr. Sam Chang at Vanderbilt University, who described the Anktiva plus BCG trial. Irv feels fortunate now that he sold his dental practice just before the pandemic, because it allowed him to easily participate in the trial. And he did – driving 400 miles roundtrip over the early months of 2020 to receive treatment and assessment of his bladder cancer. It was worth it. He did not have any tumor recurrence over the two years of the study. At first, he didn’t understand why BCG was being used again, but learned Anktiva was designed to enhance BCG effects, boosting his own cancer-fighting natural killer and T cells.

He says his positivity has returned. “Cheers and happy times again!” and with it, at 70, running about six miles a day. He remembers the moment even his urine was free of cancer cells, “woo-hoo!”

Indication and Important Safety Information

INDICATION AND USAGE: ANKTIVA is an interleukin-15 (IL-15) receptor agonist indicated with Bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) for the treatment of adult patients with BCG-unresponsive non-muscle invasive bladder cancer (NMIBC) with carcinoma in situ (CIS) with or without papillary tumors.

WARNINGS AND PRECAUTIONS: Risk of Metastatic Bladder Cancer with Delayed Cystectomy. Delaying cystectomy can lead to the development of muscle invasive or metastatic bladder cancer, which can be lethal. If patients with CIS do not have a complete response to treatment after a second induction course of ANKTIVA with BCG, reconsider cystectomy.

DOSAGE AND ADMINISTRATION: For lntravesical Use Only. Do not administer by subcutaneous or intravenous routes. Instill intravesically only after dilution. Total time from vial puncture to the completion of the intravesical instillation should not exceed 2 hours.

USE IN SPECIFIC POPULATIONS: Pregnancy: May cause fetal harm. Advise females of reproductive potential of the potential risk to a fetus and to use effective contraception.

ADVERSE REACTIONS: The most common (≥15%) adverse reactions, including laboratory test abnormalities, are increased creatinine, dysuria, hematuria, urinary frequency, micturition urgency, urinary tract infection, increased potassium, musculoskeletal pain, chills and pyrexia.

For more information about ANKTIVA, please see the Full Prescribing Information at www.anktiva.com.

You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to FDA. Visit www.FDA.gov/medwatch or call 1-800-332-1088. You may also contact lmmunityBio at 1-877-ANKTIVA (1-877-265-8482)

ANKTIVA® is a new choice to help conquer
non-muscle invasive bladder cancer.

For more information, please call 1-877-ANKTIVA

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