Does Folfirinox works and how to deal with the side effects

htaneg

My husband was diagnosed with PC late last year, he had a central pancreatectomy to removed all the tumors. However had some positive margins on the splenic vein. Now the oncologist put him on the Folfirinox regimen. He had 2 cycles, but each one worst than the other. His stomach is growling non-stop, unable to eat for a few day. Now can eat a little, but have stomach pain and a lot of bloating. His quality of life has gone down tremendously. His CA 19-9 was normal before surgery, but went up to 156 after surgery, and 609 after the first chemo cycle. Thinking of switching to the lesser chemo Gemzar.

Has anyone experienced similar experience and how is Gemzar compared to Folfirinox? Any advice is greatly appreciated!

Daffodil65

Hi,

I can't compare the two treatments but my husband was diagnosed in 2020 with pancreatic cancer that was borderline resectable. He went through 6 months of Folfirinox treatments every other week. It didn't shrink the tumor enough to remove it so he had nano knife surgery, followed up with MRI-guided radiation last June. His tumor remained stable until recently and now he is getting ready to start treatment with Gemzar.

He had a biopsy to see if there is another treatment that might work best for him, but we don't have the results back yet.

He was very sick with Folfirinox and the only way he could tolerate it at all was by taking the anti-nausea meds as often as possible for the 3 days he had the pump on. His CA19 levels dropped from over 100 before chemo to normal levels after the radiation treatment. A month ago they were up over 500.

Over a year after the Folfirinox, he still has no feeling in his feet and he struggles to keep weight on.

Has your husband been able to tolerate the Gemzar treatment? I hope he is doing well.