Has anyone had Doxil start working after 5-6 rounds?

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Jodisgoing180
Jodisgoing180 Member Posts: 97
in Ovarian Cancer #1

I just had round 6 of Doxil.  My cancer has been stable, even though I'm feeling better.  This last infusion (round 6), my CA-125 started to fall.  I'm supposed to start with a new doctor in April (my husband is in the military and we are moving to a new state).  My other doctor would like me on a clinical trial.  Here are my CA-125 readings (they are accurate for me):

Before chemo: 90
Round 1: 109
Round 2: 169
Round 3: 172
Round 4: 178
Round 5: 170
Round 6: 132

I'm getting at least two more rounds, and I will be getting a scan in April.

Thanks!

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  • NoTimeForCancer
    NoTimeForCancer Member Posts: 3,371 Member
    #2
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    Jodi, I can't comment on

    Jodi, I can't comment on anything with Doxil but it is so good to see you stop in.  

    I know your husband is in the military, and I am so grateful for his service, but thank you as well.  It is military families who make the services for us.  Thank you.

  • Jodisgoing180
    Jodisgoing180 Member Posts: 97
    #3
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    Thanks!

    The last few months has been really busy :).  We sold our home this past week, and are getting ready to move.

  • rejoycew
    rejoycew Member Posts: 36
    edited March 2017 #4
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    Doxil working

    My CA 125 didn't start going down until after the 5th dose of Doxil, #6 went up, #7 went down (by 30!) then #8 back up.  I'm scheduled for 2 more Doxil although my Oncologist said today if it continues to go up she will scedule another scan.  I had a scan 3 months ago and it showed some shrinkage of the known tumors and a new "development of a cystic structure adjacent to the stomach."   (Don't you just love the language!) Shouldn't they be able to tell?  Instead they say 'it could represent a new metastatic implant or potentially a loculation of ascites."  Sorry I'm venting and a bit off track.  The bottom message from my oncologist is not to get to excited about the flucuating CA125, symptoms are more important, "how does one feel".  And so that is my advice to you,  if you are feeling good (or reasonally well)  then that is what is important.  I do not envy you having to move at this time.  I do hope you have a good support system to help with making all of the necessary decisions.  I send positive healing thoughts and prayers.

  • Rose-53
    Rose-53 Member Posts: 1
    #5
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    Port with Doxil

    Does anyone know why I have have to have a port put in to recieve Doxil? I went thru 6 cycles of Carbo/Taxol without a port. Recurrence sucks

  • LorettaMarshall
    LorettaMarshall Member Posts: 662 Member
    #6
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    Rose-53 said:

    Port with Doxil

    Does anyone know why I have have to have a port put in to recieve Doxil? I went thru 6 cycles of Carbo/Taxol without a port. Recurrence sucks

    Rose~Port is 4 your comfort one would suppose!

    Good afternoon Rose

    Yes…recurrence sucks….but what’s the alternative?  Undecided That’s the choice we each much make when one drug has “done its work” for a time, and the cancer recurs.  More often than not, this is the case for Ovarian cancer.

    As for the port, it does offer advantages over insertion of a needle in a vein each time we go in for a chemo session.  When I was recuperating from the Cytoreductive Surgery back in 2013, any time I needed pain meds or nausea meds, anti-biotics, etc. they were put right into the port and I didn’t have to go through “repeated” shots with a needle.  Considering that “we’re in this cancer survival for the long-haul” as for me, I prefer to have a port, rather than to have nurses “searching for a vein” each time I need medical help.  So while we wish we had never heard of cancer, chemotherapy, etc., once we’re here, we have to make choices.  And I suppose the doctors are just trying to make your treatments more tolerable by insertion of a port.  You have asked the doctor, “why the need for a medi-port?”  have you not?

    My doctor has mentioned Doxil as a possible alternative should my current regimens of Carbo/Taxol begin to no longer work.  Right now I’m feeling as good as I am ever going to feel, although I know that as my CA-125 numbers begin a rapid rate of increase, it will be decision time again, but for now, I’m “enjoying” the chemo-free time off!

    God has granted me another interval of reprieve for which I’m thankful.  Smile And summertime is upon us, my favorite time of the year.  My husband and 2 of my sons have planted a garden out back.  Now what will we do with the crops should they all “survive”?  In times past, it has been my custom, to “cook, can and freeze” all kinds of fruits & vegetables.  So I’m not going to can as much this year.  But we’ve got corn, squash, peppers, tomatoes, pumpkins, canteloupes, strawberries now almost ready to pick, and pumpkins.  One son said, “Mom, I planted a pumpkin that will grow to weigh 300#!”  I said, “Well for certain you planted it in the front yard for the passersby to see.  I’ll not be processing a 300# pumpkin for sure.  Now I usually do cook at least one big pumpkin and can it, so we can have pumpkin pie in a jiffy.  But I’m thankful I can still “drag” my always-tired body around to do things that provide pleasure for me and my family. 

    I try not to dwell on the fact that I have a terminal (at some point) cancer that is not going to be cured.  I think of the things I can still do, and then go about those things, even though I never get it all done as quickly any more.  But I’m thankful to be alive and I do ask the Lord to give me the ability to concentrate on what I can still do, rather than what I can’t.  After all, I’m only 78 and didn’t expect to get slowed down this quickly.  My grandma lived to be one month short of 110.  She fell and broke her hip at age 105.  Doctors at a Mt. Airy, NC hospital gave her a hip transplant.  She survived and lived almost another 5 years.  She was still peeling apples and drying them on her stove at age 102.  So I just always sorta’ assumed that longevity ran in the family, (and it does) and that I would still have the energy of at least someone say—oh 50 or so at this time of my life.  Wink

    As for me, as a Stage IV OC, my hope is that I will be able to have some long periods of “progression free SURVIVAL”…that’s what it’s all about at this stage for me. 

    I’ve had 3 chemo regimens already, each consists of 6 cycles, that “18” needle sticks I avoided, not to count the times I was in the hospital for 42 days back in 2013, and needed multiple “doses” of meds each day.  Now that doesn’t include multiple trips to the Emergency Room when the port was used for some type of medication instead of a “needle stick”.  So as for me, I know I’m blessed to still be alive for over 4 years, and I much prefer the port.  Now there’s only one thing I insist on.  Since every medical person isn’t adequately trained in accessing medi-ports, I insist that person is totally familiar with, and an expert at, “accessing medi-ports!”  My name tag reads:  “Loretta Marshall” not “Guinea Pig”!

    So “just off the top of my hat”, I would say that most likely your doctor wants to put in a port for your convenience and comfort.  Now it would have been ideal if the “6” cycles you had were all you needed, but obviously “more treatments are now necessary”.  And should this medication not work, then some other combination will be used, if that is the choice you make.  So I can see that there may be repeated sessions that could involve injection either by a vein or a medi-port.  Personally, I much prefer the port.  Here’s hoping your treatments work PERIOD either by vein or by port!

    Once again this bears remembering, “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass—it’s about learning how to dance in the rain!” 

    Loretta – (Peritoneal Carcinomatosis/Ovarian Cancer Stage IV) diagnosed Nov. of 2012, and still alive to tell about it—thank God.)

    __________________________________________________________________

    1. http://gboncology.com/blog/to-port-or-not-to-port-advantages-and-disadvantages/

    To Port or Not To Port – Advantages & Disadvantages

    _________________________________________________________

    2.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?annotation_id=annotation_3002582937&feature=iv&src_vid=hmVGLbSrJU4&v=jTH_1Fvx_po

    Portacath: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW - Sarel Gaur MD

    __________________________________________________________

    3.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_nv3UYwos8

    Port-a-cath information

    __________________________________________________________

    4.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKXmySpexi8

    The Chemo Experience: Accessing the Port

    Video of a young lady getting her port accessed for a treatment session

    _________________________________________________________

    5.  https://www.doxil.com/ovarian-cancer

    6.  https://www.doxil.com/ovarian-cancer/understanding-your-treatment-options

    ___________________________End of references___________________

  • Lou Ann M
    Lou Ann M Member Posts: 996 Member
    #7
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    Rose-53 said:

    Port with Doxil

    Does anyone know why I have have to have a port put in to recieve Doxil? I went thru 6 cycles of Carbo/Taxol without a port. Recurrence sucks

    Port for Doxil

    i believe it is more toxic that Taxol/Carbo and would probably damage your veins quicker.  It is a red mix and is sometimes called the Red Devil. My nurses really suited up when they were working with me when I was getting this lovely stuff.

    Hugs and Prayers, Lou Ann

  • Beckih53
    Beckih53 Member Posts: 1
    #8
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    Lou Ann M said:

    Port for Doxil

    i believe it is more toxic that Taxol/Carbo and would probably damage your veins quicker.  It is a red mix and is sometimes called the Red Devil. My nurses really suited up when they were working with me when I was getting this lovely stuff.

    Hugs and Prayers, Lou Ann

    i have just been told that my cancer is back. My last chemo ended in Sept 2016 Carbo/Taxil.  On Wednesday I begin again with carbo/doxil.  I am scared...I understand that it is not cureable, but is this a death sentence? 

  • LorettaMarshall
    LorettaMarshall Member Posts: 662 Member
    #9
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    Becki~Seize this day~tell us more~we'll help where we can!

    Hi Becki !

    You've asked a question that is beyond our ability to answer.  Naturally, different diagnoses will determine different outcomes.  Suppose you tell us more about your exact diagnosis, and give us a little history.  Then those with a similar experience can share their stories with you.  And I will tell you that my own diagnosis is a Stage IV diagnosis, first discovered in November of 2012.  Now I'm on my 4th year of survival.  At some time, given MY own diagnosis, I will die.  However, I believe Psalm 139 wherein David was talking to the Lord.  David said (paraphrased), "Everywhere I go, You are there.  You even saw me when I was being knit together in my mother's womb, and in Your Book all the days of my life were written when as yet there were NONE of them.”  https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Psalm+139&version=NLT

    I take comfort from that because I’ve placed my faith in Him and His promises, and I firmly believe that I will not live one day longer, or die one day sooner than is my “allotted” time on this earth.  Now to be honest, if the Lord said, “Loretta, into each life some rain must fall, choose Your storm?”  My answer would not have been, “Oh how about giving me Peritoneal Carcinomatosis, and make it start in the ovaries!”  Nope—that would never have been my answer.  Come to think of it, there are others that are coping with things I wouldn’t ask for either, so I’ll settle for this storm.  I have no choice.  You nor I did anything to “bring this on.”  It just happened!  But I can thank Him that He let me live 74 years before He gave me the biggest test.  And for me, I knew it was terminal, but again at what point? 

    Being a realist, as a Stage IV, I don’t have any time to waste, thinking about yesterday and what might have been.  And when I begin to figure out tomorrow before it arrives, that’s a “lesson in futility.”  It’s a lot easier said than done, but we do have to live one day at a time.  And if you count yourself out NOW, you will cheat yourself out of a “whole lot of livin’” in the here and now.  I’ve trusted the Lord with my life and it’s nice to know that SOME ONE greater than I, has me in His hand.  And so I do have a “God-given” peace of mind and peace in my soul, although cancer is very much alive in my physical body.Cry

    So far I’ve had 3 different regimens of Carboplatin/Taxol, and they have been effective in reducing my tumor markers way back down.  One year I had “targeted radiation” on the Caudate Lobe of my Liver.  The radiation wiped those out—thank God.  And right now, I’m in the “sweet period” where I feel as good as I’m ever gonna’ feel, given my diagnosis.  It’s called “Progression Free Survival”.  That’s the most I can hope for.  It seems I have about 10 months between my “what-next” questions.  Now I don’t discount the ability of the Lord to perform miracles, but I’m not one that believes I can “tell Him what to do!”  And so I rest my case with Him.  He has led me to some good doctors, who have rightly diagnosed my cancer.  My oncologist works with me, and sees me anytime I need to be seen.  Presently I see him on a monthly basis, and have my CA-125 markers checked each time.  His door is always open.

    I’m doing all I can do, and the rest is up to God.  His calendar doesn’t read like mine.  There are so many things that I can still do that I’m not griping about the things I can no longer do.  (And my energy level is way down!)  And nobody says this is easy.  But I still have my 5 basic senses like touch, taste, see, hear, and smell.  I’m not crippled, nor blind, and I’m still in my right mind, so I’ve got a lot going for me.  So life is still good.  Things could be worse!

    Now Becki, I’m not discounting the terror that strikes your heart at this moment.  We have to fight fear or else we will forever be despondent.  There are an abundance of stories here, and I’m sure others will share theirs with you as well.  Perhaps, we can help you find good places to be treated given your correct diagnosis, but issuing death certificates is “above our pay grade.”  Sealed Don’t forfeit your days—they are precious. 

    Remember, “Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass—it’s about learning how to dance in the rain!”

    Love Loretta (now age 78 and counting)

  • bettyboop3917
    bettyboop3917 Member Posts: 45
    #10
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    beckin sorry

    Beckin I am so sorry to hear your cancer is back. I know that when it comes back it is a hard blow to deal with. Is it winable for us? I plan on fighting like hell to win as I am sure you do. :) hugs

     

     

  • rejoycew
    rejoycew Member Posts: 36
    #11
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    Inspiration from Loretta

    Loretta you are an inspiration to us.  You lift us up with your encouraging words. We are learning to "dance in the rain"  Thank you and God Bless

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