i was wondering if anyone has been put on there original chemo.
I was diagnosed in feb 05, extensive node involvement and one rib. given 6 cycles of EC plus radiotherapy. i am her neg and ER positive. have since had taxol jan 08, Cabcitabine, vinerelbine .Also ahve had tamoxifen and arimadex. Ct scan shows further liver spread and bone spread. i have just had first cycle of Ec and wondered if anyone had had the same chemo again. My onc said she is trying it because it is the chemo I had the best response to. I feel like we are clutching at straws.
maddison
Just a quick note (busy day). Your treatment more or less mirrors mine. I have extensive liver mets since 2005. I am on gemcitabine and will have vinorelbine next. I asked about original chemos and was told it would be possible to go back on them. If something has not ‘failed’ you should be OK having it again and if it gave the best results, it sounds a good option to me.
Jenny
x
thanks Jenny.
The plan is to have 3 cycles and then re scan. its so scary. I just thought it seemed a bit of a backwards step to return to the start.
Maddison
Hi Maddison,
I am on a chemo break at the moment. I had taxol/avastin last year 12 tax and then a break from taxol but stayed on avastin I then went back on taxol last Nov have just done 15 tax and will go back on it when liver gets overrun with the uggers again. My onc said if they grew while o tax there would be no point returning to it. I had fec 5 years ago and the thinking at that time was not to repeat a chemo, that has changed so we do have a better chance now.
In my head I view chemo as weed killer have to go back on it to keep the uggers under control.
Good luck hope it shrinks it again for you.
Love Debsxxx
Hi Maddison
Practice over ‘recycling’ chemos seems to have changed in recent years. There used to be a thing that you never went back to an earlier treatment, but these days, following US practice I think, people do return and sometimes return again to old chemos. And I know women for whom this approach as brought extra time…but not always. I returned a second time to vinorelbine which worked for a while on my neck tumours…but it failed by cycle 4 when I returned to it.
Clutching at straws?: well I think there is a huge debate to be had about this. I’ve recently run out of standard treatment options though my disase is still ‘only’ regional. I could have pushed to stay on vinorelbine ‘just in case’ or tried pegylated doxuribycin- similar to AC which I had for primary and which didn’t work then–instead I took the plunge and at least for now have accepted there’s no more chemo for me. This approach suits me but it brings its own hardness.
Did you ask about the statistical chance of it ‘working’. Women with primaries talk a lot about the statistical benefits of doing chemo or not…but I rarely see those kind of discussions on secondary threads.
Hope EC does well for you…and shows an improvement at your next scan.
Jane