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I'm a little confused

Becky58
Becky58 CSN Member Posts: 22
edited March 2014 in Colorectal Cancer #1
I wrote earlier about Folfox thinking it is a drug and from the reply I got I see its more of a combination of drugs. Another person wrote and included several combination of drugs and each was referred to as a "cocktail", or "folfox", and something else....so when people refer to Folfox it doesn't mean just one drug. After being on this website and following it...its interesting how cancer patients and surviours that write in have their own language.
I'm still trying to figure out what some of it means. Thanks!
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  • micheleamw
    micheleamw CSN Member Posts: 62
    #2
    Hi Becky~

    It was actually my Dad's oncologist that called his chemo regimen (that consisted of the three drugs I mentioned earlier) FOLFOX. My Dad was Stage III with four lymph nodes positive. Hope this helps : )

    Michele
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  • HisJoy
    HisJoy CSN Member Posts: 113
    #3
    Becky - sounds like you're figuring it out. We all started out knowing very little about cancer and chemo, but you learn as you go.

    You're right in saying that FOLFOX is a combination of several drugs. The initials of the drugs are in the name somehow. The main drugs in FOLFOX are 5-FU (flurouracil), Leukovorin, and Oxaliplatin. I also get Decadron as a pre-med for anti-nausea plus a drip of calcium and magnesium to mitigate the neuropathy caused by the oxaliplatin. In addition, I get the drug Avastin, so we say that my treatment is FOLFOX plus Avastin.

    You'll find that after a colectomy (surgery to remove all or part of the colon), we refer to ourselves as "semi-colons." When/if the cancer lands in another organ, it has metastasized, and we refer to that as "mets." You may hear someone say that they have Stage 4 colon cancer with mets to the liver, for example.

    Onc means oncologist and sometimes, you'll see "ca" as an abbreviation for "cancer." One other very important acronym we use is NED - No Evidence of Disease. We ALL LOVE NED!

    Feel free to ask any questions you have as you go along this journey. Anyone on the boards here will be happy to help you.

    Joyfully,
    Bonny
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