Maintenance chemo of erbitux after resection of colon and liver

sdp

I had resection of sigmoid colon in July 2012 and liver resection in august 2012. RFA to mets in august 2012.

Pathology report of colon tumour shows pT2 N0 Mx, liver mets pathology was mostly necrosis from the chemo.

This was after 10 cycles of FOLFOX plus erbitux biweekly and erbitux weekly.

Adjuvant chemo started mid Oct 2012. Done the 11 th cycle of FOLFOX plus erbitux . The 12th cycle starts tomorrow.

Oncologist has recommended a maintenance chemo of weekly erbitux for 3 months after completion of the 12 cycles of FOLFOX and erbitux.

I am reluctant to do this maintenance chemo due to QOL issues and side effects of rash and dryness due to erbitux.

Any advise , suggestions on this recommendation of maintenance chemo from my oncologist ?

I will have the Ct-pet scan sometime mid November 2012. This will the first proper scan CT and PET after the surgery.

I would welcome any help and suggestions to the maintenance chemo being recommended as I feel weekly erbitux for such a long period may not be warranted in this case. If anyone has experience or access to any other opinion from their oncologist I would appreciate the information.

Thanks

Sdp

tanstaafl

integrative maintenance
Some of us have tried alternative means of (immuno)chemo and maintenance even for high stage CC.

Part of ours includes a low dose oral 5FU prodrug, natural COX2 inhibitors with low dose aspirin, and mushroom extracts including PSK. The biggest decision is cimetidine, perhaps easier for females at high dose, and dependent on tissue biomarkers like CA19-9, VEGF and EGFR signaling for long term benefit. All aong with high supplements like some that Life Extension Foundation recommends and, separately, other essential nutrients at higher intake.

herdizziness

SDP
I wrote my opinion this basically on another post called AVASTIN if you care to take a look.
Mind you it's just my opinion,hope it helps.
To your health,
Winter Marie

thxmiker

tanstaafl said:

integrative maintenance
Some of us have tried alternative means of (immuno)chemo and maintenance even for high stage CC.

Part of ours includes a low dose oral 5FU prodrug, natural COX2 inhibitors with low dose aspirin, and mushroom extracts including PSK. The biggest decision is cimetidine, perhaps easier for females at high dose, and dependent on tissue biomarkers like CA19-9, VEGF and EGFR signaling for long term benefit. All aong with high supplements like some that Life Extension Foundation recommends and, separately, other essential nutrients at higher intake.

We just started Juicing and
We just started Juicing and using Aim Products. Food can give us most of our nutrition and when we need more we have the supplements. They are all made in the USA or Canada and do not try to break any laws.

Best Always, mike

janie1

thxmiker said:

We just started Juicing and
We just started Juicing and using Aim Products. Food can give us most of our nutrition and when we need more we have the supplements. They are all made in the USA or Canada and do not try to break any laws.

Best Always, mike

Hi Sdp
Not sure what to really say about the chemo. Hope it all works out for you.

Curious - did your oncologist have any exciting news about that conference he recently went to in......was it Austria or Switzerland.?

I always like to hear what is coming in the pipeline.....but hopefully soon, not 10 years from now. Cancer is just taking too many lives.
Even "One" is too many.

Take care.

jasminsaba

Hope this helps ...
sdp, congratulations on being NED and past the point of surgeries. I am writing to share my mother's experience since there are some similarities.

She is currently on and has been on maintenance chemo for the past 9 months. She is NED (her last set of scans were just done this week), but her oncologist has encouraged her to stay on low-dose Xeloda and Avastin for as long as she can. This scenario gets evaluated every three months during "scan season".

Xeloda & Avastin is tolerable, it seems,to my mom though I must confess it is NOT easy. She still has side effects ... but it provides a safety net for me and her, both. I feel by doing this she is actively doing something to fight any residual, microscopic disease.

Perhaps if Erbitux is too harsh on you, you can discuss switching to another maintenance program?

joemetz

jasminsaba said:

Hope this helps ...
sdp, congratulations on being NED and past the point of surgeries. I am writing to share my mother's experience since there are some similarities.

She is currently on and has been on maintenance chemo for the past 9 months. She is NED (her last set of scans were just done this week), but her oncologist has encouraged her to stay on low-dose Xeloda and Avastin for as long as she can. This scenario gets evaluated every three months during "scan season".

Xeloda & Avastin is tolerable, it seems,to my mom though I must confess it is NOT easy. She still has side effects ... but it provides a safety net for me and her, both. I feel by doing this she is actively doing something to fight any residual, microscopic disease.

Perhaps if Erbitux is too harsh on you, you can discuss switching to another maintenance program?

side effects Jasminsaba>???>>
Greetings!

thanks for sharing your note on Avastin/Xeloda.

I was on Folfox6 with Erbitux for 24 treatments. it took 30 weeks as I had to take a few breaks in the action due to the Erbitux rash and skin & eye infections cause by the rash... but that combination of drugs really worked for me. It reduce my cancer by over 80%. Got me to a surgery in July and 7 weeks ago I began the Xeloda/Avastin maintenance programs.

feeling really good, which is quite surprising.

can you share with me the side effects your mother is/has experienced with Xeloda/Avastin?

cheers

Joe

joemetz

the dreaded rash
I had the dreaded Erbitux Rash... but I had a lot of fun with it by helping people laugh at or with me. it wasn't fun, but i made it as fun as possible.

the benefit for Erbitux for me was that it really works!

unlike many other drugs, the side effect often measures how well the drug is WORKING at its main goal... starving the cancer!

I dealt with the rash as long as they would allow it. I fought for them to continue, no matter how bad the rash was on my face, back, chest or inside my eyes or ears. I didn't care, as I was convinced that as bad as the outside of my skin was looking... this stuff was doing serious damage to the cancer on the inside of my body.

and, I was right!

I cannot have Erbitux of parts of the folfox cocktail anymore due to the side effects that I've had and am currently having.... but 80% of my cancer is gone now... and my skin repaired itself and I look like a new man. (I call it my 500,000 dollar chemical peal)! LOL

If you were asking for my advice... I'd take the Erbitux as long as possible, and fight through this.

I've read a lot about Erbitux and Avastin... they are both innovative drugs that can provide excellent benefits... IF your body can handle them.

challenge the stuff and fight like hell.

cheers

Joe

sdp

janie1 said:

Hi Sdp
Not sure what to really say about the chemo. Hope it all works out for you.

Curious - did your oncologist have any exciting news about that conference he recently went to in......was it Austria or Switzerland.?

I always like to hear what is coming in the pipeline.....but hopefully soon, not 10 years from now. Cancer is just taking too many lives.
Even "One" is too many.

Take care.

Hi janie
My local oncologist went to the conference in Vienna, Austria .

He is starting few of his patients on regorafenib but says drug is yet not commercially available, atleast here in India.

Mostly it is still available for clinical trials etc, and it will be a few months before they Market this drug.

So , he is yet to personally see the results on his patients himself.

He agreed to start me on low dose aspirin after chemo is over b not while chemo is on.

Thats all the discussion I had with him regrading the conference he attended m which pertained to colon CA .