My Recurrence Results & IP

Susan523

Happy Holidays everyone...
Doesn't feel like holidays to me anymore. Not since I was dignosed. (May '06). Life just hasn't been the same, has it??

Anyway, I had an exploratory laperoscopy on Nov 29th, and it showed a recurrence, like "salt and pepper flakes" on the surface of my liver and bowels. He also installed an abdominal port-a-cath. So on Thursday I'll get my 1st IP treatment, and I'm nervous as hell, as I don't know what to expect. It'll be once a week every 3 weeks, 6 treatments. Of course we know that will most likely fluctuate along with the blood count. I'm going to be on Carbo-Taxol he "thinks".

I have to be in the hospital "under observation" for 24 hours.
Can anyone shed some light on this for me? What to expect?? Painful?? I'm scared, of course, but that's getting to be routine! Always scared with whatever's next. The nurse told me that the side effects would be the same as last time (same medication). He's also going to administer some through my chest port. They have you lay in different positions while administering to the abdomen. Interesting; but from what I've read it's pretty effective.

Anyway, if anyone could fill me in on what to expect, I would be very grateful. Even if it's bad; I can take it. And I'm going to have to take it on Thursday! lol The Dr. did say they'd have pain meds for me; so I guess it can be painful. Will I be able to drive myself home??

Thanks for your input. And everybody have the best possible holiday you can; even if it's for the family, put a smile on your face. Cancer sucks, and that's the bottom-line. But it also got me connected with some pretty neat people here at this site.

Health & Happiness to everyone this holiday and new year. Love & ((Hugs)) ~Susan

kris43

Hi Susan - I feel like this is my area of expertise. The chemo itself isn't painful - it was the side effects that caused me such great pain. I had taxotere in my chest port and cisplatin in my abdomen. My doctor didn't think you could get carbo through the abdominal port as it wasn't a proven thing. Anyway, the different positions is nothing big - once the chemo is infused, then you turn every 15 minutes from your side to your back to your other side and this goes on for 2 hours. You have to use a bed pan during this phase of chemo which to me was worse then getting chemo. I just hate it.

I was only able to complete 2 treatments as I had so many complications with my abdomen port - hopefully yours will go better. Most women do not complete all 6 treatments as the treatments are hard on your body. Will you do the taxol/carbo on days 1 & 2 then taxol again on day 8 of your cycle? That is what is standard - but because I am allergic to taxol, I just did taxotere and cisplatin in the same day.

Things I would ask before starting. Will you be getting Emend for your nausea? That is the best stuff out there right now. Also, your stomach will feel really bloated after treatment - and my doctor gave me lasix to help get rid of all that extra fluid. Downside was it caused my potassium levels to drop so now I'm taking potassium along with lasix, which they kept me on.

The best thing about doing IV/IP chemo, according to the experts, is that it gives you up to another 16 months survival rate. I was devastated when they took my port out 3 weeks ago because it was so infected - because I thought I had screwed myself out of some extra time. But my doctor assured me, any in the abdomen is better than none.

Last but not least - please do not drive home by yourself. You will be on pain meds and a lot of nausea stuff. My doctor never lets me drive myself - I always have someone with me on treatment days.

I was diagnosed with Stage IIIC Ovarian Cancer this past July and am waiting for my last treatment on the 28th (hopefully). Was to be done yesterday but my blood count was so low that I had to have my first blood transfusion instead. Very depressing.

I feel your apprehension and send you a hug and nothing but best wishes as you begin this next set of treatments. The abdominal port is a one time thing - so take it one day at a time. It's tough - but you'll get through it.

Merry Christmas and please let us know how things go on Thursday. Take care.

Kris

Felixthecat

Bear in mind that if all else fails you could try this drug and it's available from the US FMF's Compassionate Use Program:

Their website link is:
http://feminist.org/rrights/compassionateuse.asp

2003: Study of effect of mifepristone on apoptosis of human ovarian cancer cell line 3AO
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=retrieve&db=pubmed&list_uids=14728868&dopt=Abstract
• “Mifepristone inhibited significantly the proliferation and induced the cell apoptosis of cell line 3AO in dose-time dependent manner in vitro. The anti-tumor effect was related to down-regulation the expression of PR protein and bcl-2 protein, and to up-regulation the expression of p53 protein of 3AO cells.”

2003: Enhancement of antitumor effect of cisplatin against human ovarian carcinoma cells by mifepristone in vivo.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12651241&dopt=Abstract
• “At a non-toxic dose, RU486 may enhance the sensitivity of tumor cells to cisplatin in vivo, possibly through the mechanism of inhibiting GcS expression at the mRNA level.”

2005: Effects of mifepristone on the proliferation£¬ apoptosis and cis-diamminedichloroplatinum sensitivity of cultured chemoresistant human ovarian cancer cells
http://www.cmj.org/Periodical/PaperList.asp?id=LW7763
• “In conclusion, the present study provides evidence that mifepristone has dose dependent anti-proliferative effects on chemoresistant human ovarian cells, and enhance their CDDP-sensitivity. This may be associated with the synergistic effect between mifepristone and CDDP in inducing apoptosis and G0/G1-phase stasis. Further study should be carried out to explore the optimum protocol for clinical use of CDDP and mifepristone.”

Susan523

kris43 said:

Hi Susan - I feel like this is my area of expertise. The chemo itself isn't painful - it was the side effects that caused me such great pain. I had taxotere in my chest port and cisplatin in my abdomen. My doctor didn't think you could get carbo through the abdominal port as it wasn't a proven thing. Anyway, the different positions is nothing big - once the chemo is infused, then you turn every 15 minutes from your side to your back to your other side and this goes on for 2 hours. You have to use a bed pan during this phase of chemo which to me was worse then getting chemo. I just hate it.

I was only able to complete 2 treatments as I had so many complications with my abdomen port - hopefully yours will go better. Most women do not complete all 6 treatments as the treatments are hard on your body. Will you do the taxol/carbo on days 1 & 2 then taxol again on day 8 of your cycle? That is what is standard - but because I am allergic to taxol, I just did taxotere and cisplatin in the same day.

Things I would ask before starting. Will you be getting Emend for your nausea? That is the best stuff out there right now. Also, your stomach will feel really bloated after treatment - and my doctor gave me lasix to help get rid of all that extra fluid. Downside was it caused my potassium levels to drop so now I'm taking potassium along with lasix, which they kept me on.

The best thing about doing IV/IP chemo, according to the experts, is that it gives you up to another 16 months survival rate. I was devastated when they took my port out 3 weeks ago because it was so infected - because I thought I had screwed myself out of some extra time. But my doctor assured me, any in the abdomen is better than none.

Last but not least - please do not drive home by yourself. You will be on pain meds and a lot of nausea stuff. My doctor never lets me drive myself - I always have someone with me on treatment days.

I was diagnosed with Stage IIIC Ovarian Cancer this past July and am waiting for my last treatment on the 28th (hopefully). Was to be done yesterday but my blood count was so low that I had to have my first blood transfusion instead. Very depressing.

I feel your apprehension and send you a hug and nothing but best wishes as you begin this next set of treatments. The abdominal port is a one time thing - so take it one day at a time. It's tough - but you'll get through it.

Merry Christmas and please let us know how things go on Thursday. Take care.

Kris

Thank you, Kris, for you nice informative note. It sounds like you are very experienced at this.

It's sad when a Dr. convinces you that something is going to help, and then it is taken away (such as your IP Port, and I also was taken out of a research study which would have given me taxo once a month for 12 months following my 1st round). I was devastated over that, so I can imagine what you must have gone through, losing your abdominal port. I hope I have good luck with mine, but it's still sore since surgery. My entire abdomen is. I asked if it wasn't too soon to start, he said "it's okay".

For nausea he gave me Zofran. I hope it helps as well as 'Emend'. I hadn't heard of that one before. I will also mention the Lasix. Also, there was nothing mentioned about day 8 of my cycle. As far as I know, it's just both my chest port and IP at the same time, every 3 weeks for 6 treatments.
I had to have potassium on my first go-round, and that was with normal chemo (Chest port). In fact, I still have bottles of it left. Horse pills! But potassium is important.

Thanks for the info on driving home. It's a good 40 minutes, and my Dr. said "I think it'll be okay". That surprises me, as you're right; I'll be on nausea & pain meds. So my husband is going to take me & pick me up.

Thank you for getting back to me, and have a wonderful Christmas if you can. ((Hugs)) ~Susan

Susan523

Felixthecat said:

Bear in mind that if all else fails you could try this drug and it's available from the US FMF's Compassionate Use Program:

Their website link is:
http://feminist.org/rrights/compassionateuse.asp

2003: Study of effect of mifepristone on apoptosis of human ovarian cancer cell line 3AO
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=retrieve&db=pubmed&list_uids=14728868&dopt=Abstract
• “Mifepristone inhibited significantly the proliferation and induced the cell apoptosis of cell line 3AO in dose-time dependent manner in vitro. The anti-tumor effect was related to down-regulation the expression of PR protein and bcl-2 protein, and to up-regulation the expression of p53 protein of 3AO cells.”

2003: Enhancement of antitumor effect of cisplatin against human ovarian carcinoma cells by mifepristone in vivo.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=12651241&dopt=Abstract
• “At a non-toxic dose, RU486 may enhance the sensitivity of tumor cells to cisplatin in vivo, possibly through the mechanism of inhibiting GcS expression at the mRNA level.”

2005: Effects of mifepristone on the proliferation£¬ apoptosis and cis-diamminedichloroplatinum sensitivity of cultured chemoresistant human ovarian cancer cells
http://www.cmj.org/Periodical/PaperList.asp?id=LW7763
• “In conclusion, the present study provides evidence that mifepristone has dose dependent anti-proliferative effects on chemoresistant human ovarian cells, and enhance their CDDP-sensitivity. This may be associated with the synergistic effect between mifepristone and CDDP in inducing apoptosis and G0/G1-phase stasis. Further study should be carried out to explore the optimum protocol for clinical use of CDDP and mifepristone.”

Thank you, Felix, for the information. Although to be completely honest, most of it I don't understand (I think it's written in Doctor-lango!) But I will check out that site.

Have a great Christmas! ((hugs)) ~Susan

dorion

Hey girl, if it makes you feel better, tomorrow I go in for my first surgery after being diagnosed, now after reading your post now I'm really scared LOL.......Im so scared too, not knowing what to expect. All those terms you guys are using sounds pretty darn scarey to me. I pray it hasn't spread to my abdomen like they think, but they don't know til they go in. Wish me luck and I'll pray for you too Susan......hugs to you....Linda (dorion)

Susan523

dorion said:

Hey girl, if it makes you feel better, tomorrow I go in for my first surgery after being diagnosed, now after reading your post now I'm really scared LOL.......Im so scared too, not knowing what to expect. All those terms you guys are using sounds pretty darn scarey to me. I pray it hasn't spread to my abdomen like they think, but they don't know til they go in. Wish me luck and I'll pray for you too Susan......hugs to you....Linda (dorion)

Oh, Linda, I'm so sorry to hear of your surgery. I bet you're up and "not sleeping" either; depending on your time zone and surgery time.
Hopefully you found yours early, and it won't have spread to the abdomen. I'll be saying some prayers for you, too. It's all very scary, as is anything 'unknown', but like many of us say here, "knowledge is power". You've found a good site with great support, and I hope we can be here for you. By the way, it doesn't make me feel better that you're going in for your first surgery. I wish that NO ONE would ever have to do this again! I pray also that you have a great surgeon who will remove anything and everything he can find. I'll be thinking of you.
(((Hugs))) ~Susan

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