gigy
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Posts:27
Hi ALL,
i am eligible for the PD L1 clinical trial, still need to be accepted. If accepted, i am not guaranteed to have the new drug but will be using "Taxotere" (docetaxel) instead. I heard the Taxotere has very hush side effects. i am contemplating to withdraw and ask for "Tarceva" to start the maintenance if i am not given new drugs. Is this the right direction to approach?
Thank you for your suggestions.
Gigy
Forums
Reply # - July 22, 2014, 03:59 PM
Reply To: clinical trial
That's such a personal question that I don't think anyone can answer that for you. My husband has never had options for trials so I can't speak with any experience. I have asked Dr. Weiss, who does research to reply. Too he is currently Grace's Board VP and I can only imagine a fab oncologist to help one through this mess. When I started as a member of Grace and had monumental questions about my husband Dr. Weiss was able to help me through my first months.
I've thought about that very thing when I think about the possibility of driving to Nashville every couple of weeks. It moves me to the question what can we do about the credentials for giving research drugs in more community cancer centers. Have all info available anywhere. Thanks Gigy for asking a question that many ask for many reasons.
Janine
Reply # - July 22, 2014, 05:22 PM
Reply To: clinical trial
You can do whatever you want to do at the end of the day. However, it somewhat undermines the research process when people drop out of a clinical trial if they don't get the arm that they were hoping for, so it's certainly not something we would recommend. If we knew the answer to which trial would be better, there would be no reason to do the trial. I can assure you that it's not uncommon for the arm that people are hoping to get (on various trials in lung cancer and other settings) turns out to be no better and sometimes significantly worse than the "standard treatment" arm. It became the standard treatment for good reason.
Along these lines, I would caution you that Taxotere (docetaxel) is the standard arm because there is such compelling evidence favoring it as a second line therapy with a survival benefit. While Taxotere can be difficult for patients, it is also among the most active cancer treatments for NSCLC and is something I recommend to the vast majority of advanced NSCLC patients at some point in their treatment. It's always possible to discontinue it if side effects are prohibitive. I think it is a mistake to categorically dismiss Taxotere based on the probably very limited experience of a few people who might well paint an overly negative or at least overly simplified picture of what it is like.
Good luck.
-Dr. West