Hi, is anyone had or currently under going docetaxel chemo therapy? X
Hi, I had Docetaxol chemotherapy starting in October 2010, combined with Herceptin treatment. I had six cycles of Docetaxol. I got my secondary diagnosis with cancer in my lymph nodes, especially in my stomach, abdomen and a lymph node in my neck. The node in my neck had really got quite large by the time I started treatment, about 2" big - felt like I was growing a new head! Anyway, after the very first Docetaxol treatment it started to go down. I was scanned after three cycles and the lymph node in my neck had returned to a normal size and everything was shrinking back. By the end of the six cycles, I was NED. Nearly two years on, the Herceptin is no longer doing a good enough job and I have just started a new treatment regime. While the cancer has started to grow again in my stomach and abdomen, the lymph node in my neck has never returned (touch wood!). So, although I found Docetaxol quite gruelling, it worked really well for me. And, incidentally, I was given the prognosis in September 2010 of 2 years. It is now very nearly the 2 year anniversary, and I have only just had to change treatments.
So I wish your mum and you all the very best. Chin up, and big hugs. xx
Thank you for that Chris. Mums had a bit of a tough time since I posted this. She had one dose of docetaxal and fell quite poorly. After around 3 weeks later and an admission to hospital they discovered she had hydrocephalus and was taken to kings college in London where they performed a brain shunt. She is now just over a week out of hospital andrecovering slowly.
Im glad to read you have responded well to docetaxel and hoping my mum will resume this treatment and benefit like you did. Since my mum went in to hospital they have discovered she has skull mets too and although the brain soft tissues where clear they are or should by now have tested to fluid around her brain to see if the cancer cells are present in the fluid and thus caused to hydrocephalus. She is off to the oncologist today for a treatment plan and when and what they will continue with.
My mum also has nodes affected in her abdominal, some thickening of the stomach wall, a small nodule on her lung, nominal amounts in nodes under her armpit and now the skull mets.
Can I ask what your symptoms were toprompt them to get that secondary diagnosis? My mum had come up to her 5 year check with nothing too untoward. She has a hernia in her stomach which she thought was causing some random bouts of sickness, added to a reduced appetite which caused her to loose weight, they decided to investigate due to her original BCdiagnosis back in 2006.
I hope you continue to keep well and fight this awful disease. Thank you for taking the time to reply xx