Carboptin and Atimta after Tarceva for 2 years - 1290441

Hi jkcath,

I am sorry to hear about your wife's apparent progression on Tarceva, although I think it's a good idea to continue it a bit longer to see just how much it may be growing. I understand your wife's concern about the side effects from chemotherapy. Many patients have this concern, although as you say much of this is based on early experience with chemo. In recent years, not only have newer, more tolerable regimens been developed, but the ability to manage side effects has improved greatly. In fact, Alimta tends to be one of the most tolerable chemo agents for lung cancer, and most patients manage its side effects quite well.

My wife's initial therapy was carbo/Alimta, and though she experienced some nausea and fatigue, her anti-nausea medications kept that pretty well under control. Later, she used Alimta as a single agent and it was even less of a problem.

Although I hope that a switch to chemo is not yet necessary, and that your wife can be reassured that if she does need chemotherapy, it will not be anywhere near as difficult as she fears.

JimC
Forum moderator

Hi jkcath,

It's possible the chemo doublet won't be as difficult as tarceva. The symptoms can be managed by staying on top of nausea with anti-emetics and finding food that agree with her. Alimta is often described as having no side effects and people with driver mutations such as egfr appear to do very well on it for a long period of time. So much good luck to your wife.

We do have a lot written on the subject of diet on chemo. "Diet" being used as a term to describe the food one eats and not a directed list of things to eat. A balanced diet is best but not always possible. Some of the common threads throughout the discussions are, eat what you can. People often lose their appetite during chemo so finding foods that one will eat is important. My husband sometimes only consumed vanilla ensure plus and its generic copies, they provide calories, protein and vitimins. Foods with high fat content is a trick to getting calories when one isn't eating much. Bland may be appealing because typically seasoned foods sometimes become offensive. If she eats pork try adding bacon or bacon grease to foods, it can make anything tasty. Chopped and minced ginger soothes nausea. When my husband was on chemo I put bacon and ginger in just about everything. Take a look around the boards with our search engine to find more about what others do to help boost appetite. One more thought, tastes change. I found I had to try new things because my go to foods no longer worked.

Sending wishes for a smooth transition and long efficacy.
All best,
Janine

Hi jkcath,

Just to add a nit to Janine's good advice: Eating smaller snacks rather than full meals often helps, as does taking a walk in the fresh air. It's best if the anti-emetic is taken before nausea sets in, so once you become familiar with when nausea begins to appear (typically a couple days after the infusion), she can start taking it before that point, and just take it on the prescribed schedule.

JimC
Forum moderator