Chemo & Meds ?

funnybunny813
funnybunny813 Member Posts: 1
edited March 2014 in Brain Cancer #1
Hello everyone, I'm new to this message board. My husband was diagonsed with a GBM in April of 04, he had surgery to remove a plum sized tumor that was on his left side between his frontal/parietal lobes & very close to his speech center. He immediately started with the Temodar and radiation (tomo-therapy). However 4 months later the tumor had recurred to the original size. Despite a bad surgical consult, we found another neurosurgeon who was more positive, he resected 90-95% of the tumor and put in the gliadel wafers. At that time his oncologist recommended that he stop the temodar because it seemed to not be helping him since his tumor recurred so quickly, even after finishing the radiation. We sought out opinions on the gamma knife, but they wouldn't do it because the tumor bed was "crescent shaped" which apparently isn't the most desirable shape to perform gamma knife on. So 2 months after his 2nd surgery and at the suggestion of a 2nd oncologist (who btw agreed with the original onc. about the temodar) he started BCNU. During this time, he has also had trouble with the cavity that was left from the tumor filling up with fluid. His neurosurgeon wasn't sure why, suspected it was possibly dead tumor? He had 2 surgeries to aspirate the fluid. Which seemed to help somewhat.
Ok, on to my question here, I noticed that some of you are saying that you or your loved ones are taking accutane, what is that and why is it used with the chemo? Right now my husband has been receiving the Chemo thru a port every 4-8 weeks. He also takes dilantin & trileptal for seizures and dexamethasone (4mg). He started taking Noni Juice back in January, and since then we have seen a slow reduction of the tumor. This is great news, but he is still having side effects from the tumor/surgeries. He has a difficult time finding words and also his right side often lags behind and is much slower, uncoordinated.
Any info anyone can pass on to me would be great.
FYI, my husband is 30 now, 28 when he was diagonsed.

Comments

  • AuthorUnknown
    AuthorUnknown Member Posts: 1,537 Member
    #2
    Hello,

    If you would like information on accutane, you may want to contact the American Cancer Society's National Cancer Information Center. Cancer Information Specialists are available 24 hours a day and can assist you with your questions. They can be reached at 1-800-227-2345 or by clicking on the "Contact ACS" link at the top of the page.

    I wish your husband well on his treatment.

    Take care and be well,

    Dana
    CSN Dana

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