Had a PET/CT on Monday

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Buckwirth
Buckwirth Member Posts: 1,258 Member
in Colorectal Cancer #1
As many of you know, I have mets to distant lymph nodes, with no activity in any major organs.

What is distant? Esophagus to pelvis.

For treatment, I have been on weekly doses of Erbitux, and two weeks on, one week off of Irinotecan.

Erbitux is one of the newer targeted drugs. It chases a receptor on the skin of the sell called EGFR (Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor), which turns out to be one of the switches telling a cancer cell to grow.

It is referred to as "targeted" because it goes after just this receptor, even though it does this to healthy cells as well as metastasized clusters. Unlike traditional chemotherapy drugs, its intent is not to kill all fast growing cells by poison, rather it just interrupts the flow of information to the cell. So it is in this way "targeted".

I have been on this therapy since the first week of June, and my rash has apparently been pretty bad, though the itching has been tolerable my chest and back look like a really bad case of chicken pox.

Today I went over the results with my Onc, who referred to them as mixed. Some nodes shrunk, some grew. To date, it is still just in the nodes.

I asked if we could move to an every other week schedule. He agreed to give it a try, with us monitoring my CEA (which has dropped to 2.7 btw, from a high of about 50). They will not be upping my dosage, as he is concerned that the rash is bad and would get worse, but I will try to be diligent with the cream and the antibiotic and see if I can get that under control, then maybe I can convince him to push the envelope a little.

So, I see this as good news, and I'm ready to take a risk so that I may be able to partake a little more in life.

Comments

  • tanstaafl
    tanstaafl Member Posts: 1,313 Member
    #2
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    "MIRV" targets
    Glad the Erbitux + Iri has stemmed CRC's assault.

    I guess my question for the surgeons, is if metastases could be better controlled at surgery, would they be more aggressive about a surgical/physical attrition strategy going after those distant nodes, one by one if necessary. Especially the ones more physically accessible. It was a chore getting wife's surgery for the conglomerated (a surgical surprise?) para-aortic LN with several surgeons' declines upfront. I read the papers, we did the consults (~6 rad oncs-too big and as it happens, probably radioresistant; med oncs; radiologists). I thought it was a no-brainer in my wife's case - cut the damn 32+ gram thing out, NOW, since there were no new visible metastases and the biomarkers were controlled with dosage. "Now" took about 5 weeks and seeming medical holy water.

    We aim to inhibit VEGF, HIF, tyrosine kinases, EGFR signaling as well have immunotherapy aspects with cimetidine, ascorbate neutralization of histamine for VEGF, tetrahydrofuran metabolites from tegafur the 5FU prodrug in UFT, menaquinone-4, and beta glucans to augment continuous 5FU metabolites with very low toxicity on the body. Along with other nutraceuticals. We're always on the lookout for candidate molecules for the cocktail.
  • Kathleen808
    Kathleen808 Member Posts: 2,342 Member
    #3
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    Buckwirth
    Buckwirth,
    I hope the extra time between treatment is enjoyable and that the rash goes down. You're a fighter.


    Aloha,
    Kathleen
  • MrsJP
    MrsJP Member Posts: 157
    #4
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    ")
    Just wanted you to no I'm thinking of you and am glad that your scan came out ok. I also hope the longer break between chemo will help your skin issues..
    JP
  • johnnybegood
    johnnybegood Member Posts: 1,117 Member
    #5
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    MrsJP said:

    ")
    Just wanted you to no I'm thinking of you and am glad that your scan came out ok. I also hope the longer break between chemo will help your skin issues..
    JP

    sounds
    like you already have a good plan going.keep up the fight...Godbless...johnnybegood
  • Lovekitties
    Lovekitties Member Posts: 3,364 Member
    #6
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    Dear Blake
    Sorry to hear that the chemo rash is so bad, the heat of summer probably doesn't help any. Hopefully you will find a topical which helps control it or at least provides some comfort.

    While mixed reviews on the scans might not be the best news, that coupled with the great drop in CEA sounds like you have it under control.

    I hope the new schedule continues the drop and gets all those nodes on the shrunk side of the list.

    You have the right attitude. Partaking of life beyond cancer is what it is all about.

    Hoping for nothing but fair skys in your future, so put the top down on the convertible and enjoy!

    Hugs,

    Marie who loves kitties
  • pete43lost_at_sea
    pete43lost_at_sea Member Posts: 3,900 Member
    #7
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    the worse the rash the more effective treatment
    blake,

    was told this cancer support group by a crc stage 4 on erbitux that was supposed to have passed away in 2010, he keeps on reminding us about this. they have a few tricks to manage the rash, he shows his rash off in the group. not pretty but so far it works.

    goodluck,
    pete
  • tootsie1
    tootsie1 Member Posts: 5,044 Member
    #8
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    Like the trend with your numbers
    Well, here's to partaking in more of life!

    *hugs*
    Gail
  • laurettas
    laurettas Member Posts: 372
    #9
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    Just found this old thread
    Since this thread is mainly about lymph involvement, thought I would ask a question that I have had for a while. My husband, the last time he had cancer, had a procedure called a lymphangiogram done. The docs put very small needles in lymph veins in each foot and pushed a dye completely through his lymph system so that they could see every part of his lymph system--wanted to look at all lymph nodes since he had Hodgkins' disease, a lymph cancer. My question is this: why couldn't chemo be pushed through the lymph system just as that dye was? Wouldn't that be similar to the procedure done in livers where they put chemo into the blood vessels in the liver? For those who have lymph involvement, I would think it could be a way to target just the lymph system. Any thoughts?
  • smokeyjoe
    smokeyjoe Member Posts: 1,425 Member
    #10
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    laurettas said:

    Just found this old thread
    Since this thread is mainly about lymph involvement, thought I would ask a question that I have had for a while. My husband, the last time he had cancer, had a procedure called a lymphangiogram done. The docs put very small needles in lymph veins in each foot and pushed a dye completely through his lymph system so that they could see every part of his lymph system--wanted to look at all lymph nodes since he had Hodgkins' disease, a lymph cancer. My question is this: why couldn't chemo be pushed through the lymph system just as that dye was? Wouldn't that be similar to the procedure done in livers where they put chemo into the blood vessels in the liver? For those who have lymph involvement, I would think it could be a way to target just the lymph system. Any thoughts?

    That thought has crossed my
    That thought has crossed my mind too, or just put needle in the lymph nodes that are enlarged and deliver chemo to them, especially if there are just a couple of enlarged lymph nodes. I guess they want chemo through your whole system for anything that is so small it's not showing up on scans.

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