Well I have had two very good years on xeloda for liver mets but this afternoon received confirmation of slight liver progression so time for a change of plan. Next week I will have a port fitted and will start gemcitabine, for up to a year all being well. My onc and I agree that this works in a fairly similar way to xeloda so we are hoping for some good results here. He did give me the ‘plenty of other options up our sleeves’ spiel, so I had to tell him off! As he said, if we could knock out the resistant clone cell which doesn’t like xeloda, I could go back on to this in the future and he also said that I would be able to revisit old chemos.
So whilst I was really nervy waiting for the results I was not phased to be told of new plan, as he had warned me that previous inconclusive scan might indicate a new plan of attack and I had already done my homework on this one.
Anyone have anything good or bad to say about gemcitabine (gemzar)?
Oh Jenny, I’m sorry to hear you are saying Goodbye to Xeloda…I had thought you were getting the results tomorrow. I think Jane (RA) has had Gemzar…am I right Jane? Good Luck with it…I hope it’s effective but kind.
Take Care Jenny… Belinda…x
Hi Jenny
sorry xeloda has stopped working for you I was on it for 2 years and then my uggers worked their way around it. Good luck with the new chemo I have not done that one yet, so can’t help.
Love your picture.
Love Debsxxx
Sorry to hear this - all in all a sh*t week then! I don’t know much about gemcitabine - is it weekly/monthly? I hope it turns out to be as tolerable for you as xeloda.
Repeating some of what I’ve said privately cause the info might help others.
I had 6 cycles of carboplatin combined with gemcitibine (gemzar) last year. I ddin’t get on well wth it…was supposed to have it on Day 1 and Day 8, but only managed two Day 8s before deciding to abandon as my platelets and red blood cells so low and I found the exhaustion I was getting too debiliating (also clinically because my tumours can be felt it didn’t seem to be making a dramatic difference.)
After 6 cycles my tumours were stable but grew again immediately…though I took a chemo break for 4 months then which might not be what others would have done.
But I didin’t respond to xeloda either…and if gem works in a similar way to xeloda then you could get a really good response.
I’m sorry you’ve had such a tough horrible week…and hoping the gem goes OK for you. (oh by the way you’re not supposed to lose your hair on it…though I did (! ***) but my hair is very thin anyway.)
Hi Jenny, sorry to hear of the change in treatments, hopefully this will work equally as well for you.
I am currently on gemcitabine, along with taxol on 21 day cycles with day 1 gem/tax and day 8 gem alone. I was on carboplatin for 2 cycles but got no response.
I just did 2nd cycle of Gem / Tax and have another Gem on Tuesday next week. Had a bit of an odd reaction to the day 8 gem, with vomiting, temperature and pounding heart, which team thinks was a one off due to a virus I picked up that weekend, guess I will know next week! I have not had any of those reactions when taking it with tax so who knows.
It’s kinda early to judge if working yet, I think it is, am getting stabbing feelings in the largest node on my neck, so I can hope! I don’t have mets but have incurable local reccurance to neck and chest nodes, similar to JanRA.
Good luck with your treatments and I hope they work for you.
So sorry to hear this news but it is encouraging that your onc sounds (from what you say) quite confident about gemcitabine. Xeloda has obviously worked well for you (as it is doing for me) - I hadn’t realised there was the link with gemcitabine.
Really hope that it does indeed keep things under control, that you don’t get too many side effects to deal with, and that you have another long period of stability.
I’m just about to start Gemcitabine alongside Mitoxantrone. I had previously been on Xeloda also but have had some further disease progression in my bony mets so a change of chemo has been recommended. I’ll let you know what kind of side effects I have although I’m hoping minimal!
I’m also having a CT scan for a baseline assessment before starting the chemo which I hope doesn’t throw any other spread into the picture!
Thanks for your replies. It is a bit harder to find out about response rates to this drug - but I wish all of us on it huge success.
I can see the next month is going to be a bit of a nightmare. The BC nurse has just phoned to say my first dose is on the 5th, port in on 10th, doses 2 & 3 on the 12th & 19th. I am down for day 1,8 & 15 of 28 day cycle. I just hope my bloods will be up to it. I had thought it would only be 2 doses per cycle but perhaps they are going to hit it hard while I am up to it.
BC nurse just phoned back and it is only day 1 & 8 and clinic on 3rd week. So heavy just the same as will be at hospital every week. She also admitted that it might be hard going and that up to a year on it is very optimistic. She says I may want to switch to some oral alternative at some stage. Gosh I’m beginning to feel like a cancer patient again - something I’ve managed to ditch for the past two years.
Another thing I forgot - I’m enrolled on a trial to monitor “identification and classification of circulating tumour cells” in mets patients. Basically new lab techniques are being used to isolate and characterise cancer cells so I’ll be having markers taken for the first time in my treatment.