CA-125 continues to rise after surgery & 4 Doxil Treatments

tracybdppc
tracybdppc Member Posts: 9
edited March 2014 in Ovarian Cancer #1
My Mom was diagnoised for the 2nd time with ovarian cancer last January. I posted a couple of questions last year as she re-started her treatments. Mom's CA-125 started out over 5200. Mom had 7 months of Carbo/Taxol treatments every week which lead to blood clots and many other medicial problems. Mom had surgery in August to remove the tumor in her colon (ovarian cancer that invaded her colon). After 7 months of treatments & surgery, her CA-125 was down to a little over 600. Since Mom's surgery, she has started treatments of Doxil that she takes once a month. She has had 4 Doxil treatments and her CA-125 has risen to more than 4000. Her oncologist says the CA-125 numbers as nothing to be concerned about because the Doxil can actually make it rise. He said after the 4th treatment, the numbers should start to go down. Has anyone else had this kind of reaction? It's just very scary that they are rising so much and so fast.

Today she had a follow up to a questionable mammogram. They found that the cysts in her lymphnodes under her arm have ovarian cancer trademarks. We are now waiting to her from her oncologist, but I wanted to see if any of this sounded familiar to any of you.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my post and share any information that you may have.

God Bless!!

Comments

  • clamryn
    clamryn Member Posts: 508
    #2
    Hi Tracy
    Hi Tracy, I was like your mom in regards to having a 2nd reoccurence and taking the carbo/taxol. Then I was NED for about a year and then the beast returned and I did the Doxil treatments. I actually did 8 of them (was only suppose to do 6). I had about 4 spots they were trying to kill and the Doxil did get three of them and the one that was left it only made it shrink a little. I have read some posts on here where people have said that Doxil is slow working. As far as my CA125, my numbers did go down during treatment. When I finished with the treatments my numbers starting going back up. Not a lot... but it still went up. I have been on a break for now.

    Just remember.. all of us are different and sometimes the numbers don't reflect what is going on in our bodies. The CA125 is a marker that they use. CT/Scans and PET/CT Scans will give you a better picture of what is going on.

    God Bless you and your mom. It is not easy road but your mom can do it. There are a lot of things out there.

    Please let us know how you mom is doing.

    Linda
  • antcat
    antcat Member Posts: 270
    #3
    Mom's Rising CA 125 with Doxil
    Hi..I too had a rising CA 125 with Doxil, but I was prepared for it because I went on the Doxil website and it told me that the CA 125 would rise. Mine went from 9 - 31, I still did get a little alarmed but after the 3rd cycle of Doxil, it went down to 17, now that I'm off Doxil it went down to 9. If you want to get any information about Doxil, you can go on Doxil.com. They have a section with all the Doxil information, such as side effects. Doxil didn't work for me, after the 3rd cycle, the dr. took me off, because it didn't shrink the tumors. I'm now on Avastin and Cytoxan.

    My thoughts are with you.
  • eward
    eward Member Posts: 210
    #4
    ppc and doxil
    My mom (age 64)has had problems with her numbers not coming down quickly on Doxil. She was on it last spring for her 1st recurrance (if I am remembering dates correctly) and had 4 treatments. They took her off the Doxil to put her on 2 oral meds plus Avastin. Before starting her new meds, her CA test was done and her number came down from somewhere around 3000 to 1900. This must have been because of the Doxil, we think... But all the plans were already in the works for her to change meds, so she did. So she took the new meds over the summer and into the early fall. Her meds were changed again in the fall because numbers were back up to 3800 or so, and they put her back on Doxil and also Carboplatin. Over that period of time from last spring to now, mom's cancer has spread to her breasts. She has a drain in her right lung to keep her fluid down. She and my dad can drain it themselves once a week. Her numbers are hovering in the 2000s and 3000s, depending on the lab she goes to for her test. Otherwise there has been no progression in her abdomen that they can see and she is feeling pretty good. She is tolerating the Doxil/Carbo like a champ, and has had 4 treatments so far. I am hopeful with the way she is doing - seemingly pretty good except for her breasts - that eventually she might have a dip in her CA number. Fortunately all of her other bloodwork seems to come out normal.

    She is one strong woman, as all survivors are.
    Take care. Hope your mom sees some good results soon.
  • eward
    eward Member Posts: 210
    #5
    lymph
    Oh, and yes, the lymph node involvement started before the breasts became involved for my mom. They did a biopsy to see if it was a separate cancer, and determined it was Ovarian/Primary peritoneal spread to the breast.
  • Hissy_Fitz
    Hissy_Fitz Member Posts: 1,834
    #6
    Tracy....can your mom
    Tracy....can your mom tolerate a masectomy? I had a suspicious mammogram (turned out to be nothing) and had already made up my mind that if it was mets from the OC, I was going to have the girls whacked. Is that an option for your mom? If so, tell her to look on the bright side....new, perky boobs! For free!

    Carlene

    PS....I tried to parlay my de-bulking surgery into a combo, with a tummy tuck thrown in, but no luck. Then I went to work on the surgeon who is going to do my hernia repair, but it's lap surgery, so no tummy tuck for me. Boo hoo!
  • tracybdppc
    tracybdppc Member Posts: 9
    #7
    clamryn said:

    Hi Tracy
    Hi Tracy, I was like your mom in regards to having a 2nd reoccurence and taking the carbo/taxol. Then I was NED for about a year and then the beast returned and I did the Doxil treatments. I actually did 8 of them (was only suppose to do 6). I had about 4 spots they were trying to kill and the Doxil did get three of them and the one that was left it only made it shrink a little. I have read some posts on here where people have said that Doxil is slow working. As far as my CA125, my numbers did go down during treatment. When I finished with the treatments my numbers starting going back up. Not a lot... but it still went up. I have been on a break for now.

    Just remember.. all of us are different and sometimes the numbers don't reflect what is going on in our bodies. The CA125 is a marker that they use. CT/Scans and PET/CT Scans will give you a better picture of what is going on.

    God Bless you and your mom. It is not easy road but your mom can do it. There are a lot of things out there.

    Please let us know how you mom is doing.

    Linda

    CA-125 continues to rise rapidly
    Well here it is February 28th and Mom's CA125 is now 12,883. They took her off of Doxil and put her on Topotecan. She has had 2 rounds of treatments. When she started the Topotecan, her CA125 was over 8,000. Now after 2 rounds of treatments it continues to climb!!

    We are at the end of our rope! This is so very frustrating. The oncologist doesn't seem alarmed. Mother is scared, frustrated and very tired. We have a very stong faith and know that God is in control and NONE of this has taken Him by surprise. We desperatly need to know where to go from here.

    We thank you again for checking on us and for your words of encouragement & experience. Please continue to pray for my Mom.

    Thank you so much!!
  • nancy591
    nancy591 Member Posts: 1,027 Member
    #8
    tracybdppc said:

    CA-125 continues to rise rapidly
    Well here it is February 28th and Mom's CA125 is now 12,883. They took her off of Doxil and put her on Topotecan. She has had 2 rounds of treatments. When she started the Topotecan, her CA125 was over 8,000. Now after 2 rounds of treatments it continues to climb!!

    We are at the end of our rope! This is so very frustrating. The oncologist doesn't seem alarmed. Mother is scared, frustrated and very tired. We have a very stong faith and know that God is in control and NONE of this has taken Him by surprise. We desperatly need to know where to go from here.

    We thank you again for checking on us and for your words of encouragement & experience. Please continue to pray for my Mom.

    Thank you so much!!

    hope
    I know it is frustrating. When I get bad news I take comfort in knowing I am do everything within my power. I was on Doxil too with no success, I've never been on Topo. I think its the only one of the well known drugs for ovca that I haven't been on yet. There are other drugs that DO work for some women. Keep hoping they will find a match.
  • tracybdppc
    tracybdppc Member Posts: 9
    #9
    nancy591 said:

    hope
    I know it is frustrating. When I get bad news I take comfort in knowing I am do everything within my power. I was on Doxil too with no success, I've never been on Topo. I think its the only one of the well known drugs for ovca that I haven't been on yet. There are other drugs that DO work for some women. Keep hoping they will find a match.

    Thank you!
    Nancy-Thank you for your words of encouragement. Mom went to see her oncologist today. He is going to meet with several other oncologist to discuss Mom's case. The are concern because her CA125 was 12,866 today. They are talking about putting her back ton the taxol & carboplatin, but at a lower dose. They say that going back on it could lead to her being crippled due to the neuropathy.

    All of this today has been a little much to process; however, we are so thankful to have a loving Heavenly Father that deeply cares for us. He will never leave or forsake us and allows us to lay all of our burdens at His feet.

    We will continue to seek His direction on this journey. Again we appreciate all the words of encouragement and help along the way!

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