My mom is a 73 y.o diagnosed over 2.5 years ago with ext sclc in 6-13. She has had 4 different types of chem over this time. carbolplatin/etoposide, paclitaxil, CAV and now topetecan. She had WBRT in 2-15 for brain mets, cyber knife in 10-15 and will have another cyberknife in 1-16.
We don't know the current state of her primary lung cancer other than there is still a tumor in her right lung. She has been doing topetecan since May 2015 (it is now Jan of 2016) every three weeks with a 6 week break to do the first cyber knife. Her PETscan that was scheduled for 1-4-15 was cancelled so she can undergo cyberknife.
My question is when they do a PETScan and if it shows lung cancer growing will they continue topetecan or use another drug. I guess really the question is what are the options? Is an immunotherapy trial one of the options.
Thank you so much
Lisa
third recurrence of brain mets in ext sclc - 1272403
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Reply # - January 3, 2016, 07:13 AM
Hi Lisa,
Hi Lisa,
Whether your mom will continue on topotecan will depend on not only if progression appears but also how significant it is. If the growth is minimal, her doctor may recommend continuing topotecan and following up with another scan after a relatively short interval.
If there is a need to change regimens, there are clinical trials of new agents for SCLC, which you can read about in Dr. Pietanza's discussion here.
Some SCLC patients with PD-L1 expression can benefit from immune checkpoint inhibitors as discussed in this GRACEcast video (and transcript).
I hope that the scan shows that your mom doesn't need to consider new treatments.at this time.
JimC
Forum moderator