Hello all, I found this site and recently registered.. What a wonderful site full of compassion and information. My wife of 44 (65) years was diagnosed in July with Stage IV lung cancer that spread to her brain, adrenal gland, and femur. She has just finished her 4th round of carbo/taxol, 3 on 1 off. He has planned on 6 rounds prior to maintenance of 3 off, 1 on. Her PET scan last Friday was described by her DR as stable/slightly progressive. Growth of the leison on her adrenal gland and additional "spots" on the liver. He is planning on changing her chemo to a recently FDA approved Abraxane/Gemzar for lung cancer in hopes that the progression ceases. Does anyone have any experience with the protocol?? As her care giver, I am especially interested in side effects and quality of life which I rate as poor now.
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newguy
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Reply # - November 12, 2012, 01:37 PM
Reply To: First Post
Hi, welcome go Grace. I'm so sorry to hear your long time love is suffering so. It is common to experience many ill feeling side effects while on a platinum doublet. The good part is people tend to recover quickly when the treatment is ended.
I wonder how much you know about molecular testing, treatment options, and symptom and side effect management. As you have guessed we have a lot of information on these subjects and offer doctor comments on the questions that remain specific to your wife. Our search feature is quite good but depending on your browser you may need to log out for it to work. There is also quite a few blog post written by our doctors and can be accessed by clicking through the "Cancer Info" links in the green column at the top of the page (then clicking on the specific areas of interest on the side column.
On the matter of your questions I will contact a doctor for comment. You should hear back within a day.
I look forward to hearing of good outcomes in favor of your wife's quality of life soon,
Janine
forum moderator
Reply # - November 12, 2012, 01:57 PM
Reply To: First Post
New guy, I'm so sorry to hear about your wife. I hope she's not in pain from the mets in the femur. You have provided a lot of useful information but something I didn't see was whether your wife's cancer is squamous or adenocarcinoma? If you know which type she has, it might complete the picture. Best wishes.
Reply # - November 12, 2012, 04:07 PM
Reply To: First Post
I'm sorry to hear of her progression. To address your specific question, that combination isn't really a studied one, and I'd be very surprised if someone here has received it. It's not that it's an outlandish recommendation -- it's just a combination that I suspect was just cobbled together by the oncologist, without any significant published experience on it. I don't think it would be the easiest or the hardest treatment out there, and the tolerability would likely depend on the doses given. However, significant neuropathy (numbness and tingling) might well become a real problem with Abraxane (albumin-bound paclitaxel) after Taxol (standard, "cremaphor"-based paclitaxel), since they are basically different versions of the same drug, which is notorious for causing cumulative neuropathy.
-Dr. West
Reply # - November 12, 2012, 04:44 PM
Reply To: First Post
Thank you for your replies and caring. First let me say that this is the first dealing with cancer in our families since 1969 believe it or not..... Jane has non-small cell squamous lung cancer that spread to her femur, adrenal gland and a small leison in the lower part of her brain.It was found in July of this year due to pain in her femur. She has had 15 radiation treatments in July/August which shrunk the brain leison slightly but more importantly alleviated almost of the pain, only pain med is a Tylonal 2X daily. She has had four months of 3 weeks on and 1 week off of chemo to date, carbo/taxol. A recent PET scan showed stable/slightly progressive mainly due to growth of the adrenal gland leison. Our oncologist was excited about the research and FDA release of Abraxane/Gemzar for lung cancer (a web search showed information of the release in October 2012). She is starting her 5th month of chemo tomorrow and the Dr is going to use the abraxane with taxol first and gradually move to the gemzar. Also part of her protocol is Zometra (sp) to strengthen her bones once a month. As you can tell, I am learning and as care giver (no family close by) I have to help. The first 3 months were horrible for her, pain, nausia, being helpless. She has gradually improved the quality of her life becoming more independent, My fear is starting all over.
Your replies are appreciated and helpful.
Reply # - November 13, 2012, 01:47 AM
Reply To: First Post
Dr West wrote a post about abraxane at the time it was approved by the FDA, which might be of interest to you. His preference is to use it in older patients and people with squamous tumours:
http://cancergrace.org/lung/2012/10/12/abraxane-fda-approval/
It sounds as if both you and your wife are having a tough time. I'm glad to hear however that her pain has improved.
Reply # - November 13, 2012, 02:16 AM
Reply To: First Post
Certain Spring, thank you for your reply. I do not fully understand the entire article but what I did understand sounds encouraging. My error is that I thought the mix was Abraxane/Taxol but according to the article shows Carbo/Abraxane. She starts today.
Hope and pray you are well.