Are there any maintenance drugs after radiation/chemo treatment is done?

dnx
dnx Member Posts: 4 Member
edited October 2022 in Uterine/Endometrial Cancer #1

Some backstory:

My mom was diagnosed with Stage 3c carcinosarcoma of endometrium last November, underwent total hysterectomy and bilateral salpingoophrectomy.

CT scan after the surgery showed no cancer.

After she recovered from the surgery she had 5 weeks of radiotherapy treatment. 1st and 4th week during the the radiotherapy she had 2 Cisplatin treatments.

Then she had a break for 5 weeks to recover her white blood cell count.

After that she had 2 treatments of brachytherapy radiation over 2 weeks, once a week.

Again 5 weeks break.

She had another CT scan and it was clean.

In July she started 4 treatments of Paclitaxel/Carboplatin given every 3 weeks (few times she had to wait for another week to recover white blood cell count).

She is finally done with all her treatments.

She changed her diet: cut the sugar, bread and most of the carbs, eats a lot of fish, berries, vegetables (every day she drinks veggie/berry/fruit shake), drinks 1000mg of Curcumin every day (I read good things about it), fish oil, drinks probiotics (it helped a lot after the radiation), ginger, flex seeds, matcha, nuts.

My question is - are there any maintenance drugs to prevent recurrence like Anastrozole for a breast cancer? What to do next? How to make sure cancer doesn't come back?

Looking forward for some input. Thank you all in advance.

Danny

Comments

  • Fridays Child
    Fridays Child Member Posts: 277 Member
    #2

    Danny,

    The short answer is yes, there are maintenance drugs. It would depend on the type of cancer she has. If it's estrogen positive, then there are a few drugs that will help reduce the estrogen in her body. Letrozole and Megestrol are two of them. Her doctors should be able to tell her if there is something that would help to reduce the chance of recurrence.

    Congratulations to her on completing treatment, and best wishes for a long and healthy life!

  • cmb
    cmb Member Posts: 1,001 Member
    edited September 2022 #3

    It sounds like your mother has made a number of beneficial changes that should improve her overall health as she recovers from her cancer treatment.

    Maintenance therapy has been more common with other forms of uterine cancer, or in the case of carcinosarcoma, used in the post treatment phase for ovarian carcinosarcoma. Maintenance therapy wasn’t suggested for me. I don’t recall if anyone else with uterine carcinosarcoma here has taken maintenance therapy.

    But if you’re on Facebook, you can also join the dedicated Facebook group at https://www.facebook.com/groups/carcinosarcoma/ and pose your question there. That group contains a mix of women with both the uterine and ovarian forms of carcinosarcoma so there are likely to be comments regarding maintenance therapy, especially from those women with ovarian cancer.

    If you have further questions we can help with, please let us know. I hope you mother remains in good health now.

  • Kim7557
    Kim7557 Member Posts: 3 Member
    #4

    At the time that I had Stage IIIC2 uterine cancer, in 2017, it wasn't standard operating procedure to put someone on maintenance drugs after surgery, chemoradiation and brachytherapy, at least noone suggested it for me. I am almost 5 years to the day in remission, and a week ago was diagnosed with metastatic endometrial cancer in my peritoneum, and they are now recommending harmonal therapy to shrink the tumors. I say, if it's an approved therapy that you can have now, take it. Especially if it provides another layer of reassurance and peace for your mom.

  • cmb
    cmb Member Posts: 1,001 Member
    #5
    https://csn.cancer.org/discussion/comment/1700729#Comment_1700729

    I'm sorry to learn about your recurrence. While I also reached the 5-year remission mark last month, your experience shows that unfortunately cancer can return, even after that point. I hope the new therapy works to shrink the tumors without significant side effects.

  • Mercorby
    Mercorby Member Posts: 98 Member
    #6
    https://csn.cancer.org/discussion/325679/are-there-any-maintenance-drugs-after-radiation-chemo-treatment-is-done

    Hi Danny,

    I am on anastrazole and Ibrance for ER + and PR + and HER2 - endometrial cancer after two recurrences. I started in December, 2017 after I was in remission from the second recurrence. I get PET/CT scans every 6 months and the comprehensive & the CBC auto differential blood tests every month. It's been almost 5 years and still going strong. BTW, I had stage 1B and Grade 3 endometrial cancer.

    Sending good thoughts to your mom and your family.

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