Recurrent SCLC

angelyn
angelyn Member Posts: 51
in Lung Cancer #1
Hello
My mother has recurrent sclc. She was treated with cisplatin and eptoside 7 months ago along with radiation to her right lung. We thought everything was going great until this last scan when they found another spot. After the biopsy last week we got the results today that the cancer is back again, just a little farther over from the same site. The doctor told us that we could do chemo again or that they have a clinical trial drug that she could try and see how that could work. After breaking down completely in tears she decided to do the chemo again and the doctor assured her that if that did not help that then she could try the clinical trial drug. Has anyone here ever had a similiar experience like this? Do you think that treating her with the same chemo drugs will work again or will this bring her health down? Does this mean that I will be lucky to have my mom at the end of the year or should I have any hope to have her that long? I love my mom so much. I take care of her and my 94 year old grandmother who is in bad health also. My grandmother is confined to a wheelchair and can barely understand what is going on. I am running out of hope. Please God help us.

Comments

  • chad76
    chad76 Member Posts: 52
    #2
    Sending many prayers your
    Sending many prayers your way!
  • luz del lago
    luz del lago Member Posts: 449
    #3
    chad76 said:

    Sending many prayers your
    Sending many prayers your way!

    Been awhile...
    Hi chad,

    Had not seen you post in a while. I pray that you and your wife are doing well.

    Best wishes,

    Lucy
  • luz del lago
    luz del lago Member Posts: 449
    #4
    Sending prayers
    Dear Angelyn,

    Did they say it would be the "same" chemo drugs? What we were told in my husband's case was that they could not do the same drugs a second go round, but they would be administering different ones that had shown some good results in studies or actual use for second-line chemo. And should those not show any significant shrinkage, they would stop those and see if there were any others they could give him.

    My heart and prayers go out to you and your mom.

    Lucy
  • angelyn
    angelyn Member Posts: 51
    #5
    luz del lago said:

    Sending prayers
    Dear Angelyn,

    Did they say it would be the "same" chemo drugs? What we were told in my husband's case was that they could not do the same drugs a second go round, but they would be administering different ones that had shown some good results in studies or actual use for second-line chemo. And should those not show any significant shrinkage, they would stop those and see if there were any others they could give him.

    My heart and prayers go out to you and your mom.

    Lucy

    Thank you for the prayers
    Thank you both Lucy and Chad for your prayers. They are very appreciated and certainly needed. The doctor said that they would be using Cisplatin and VP 16 which I believe the VP 16 is eptoside? That is what she had the first go around and she had a good response. He said that we could also talk to the radiologist to see if there was a possibility of radiating again. As far as the new trial drug he did not tell us the name of it. He is going to give her one week of chemo then we will go back the Monday after and he will talk to us again. Not sure about what unless he is making sure that she has tolerated it. They also told us that they have a new anti-nausea drug that is supposed to last all week. I hope that it does because she certainly got EXTREMELY nauseated the last time.
    Love and best wishes-
    Angie
  • karenbeth
    karenbeth Member Posts: 194
    #6
    angelyn said:

    Thank you for the prayers
    Thank you both Lucy and Chad for your prayers. They are very appreciated and certainly needed. The doctor said that they would be using Cisplatin and VP 16 which I believe the VP 16 is eptoside? That is what she had the first go around and she had a good response. He said that we could also talk to the radiologist to see if there was a possibility of radiating again. As far as the new trial drug he did not tell us the name of it. He is going to give her one week of chemo then we will go back the Monday after and he will talk to us again. Not sure about what unless he is making sure that she has tolerated it. They also told us that they have a new anti-nausea drug that is supposed to last all week. I hope that it does because she certainly got EXTREMELY nauseated the last time.
    Love and best wishes-
    Angie

    sending good thoughts
    I know where you are at. Hang in there!

    Karen
  • angelyn
    angelyn Member Posts: 51
    #7
    karenbeth said:

    sending good thoughts
    I know where you are at. Hang in there!

    Karen

    Thanks!
    Thanks Karen! Good thoughts and well wishes going your way also! Let's kick cancer's tail!
  • chad76
    chad76 Member Posts: 52
    #8
    luz del lago said:

    Been awhile...
    Hi chad,

    Had not seen you post in a while. I pray that you and your wife are doing well.

    Best wishes,

    Lucy

    doing good
    My wife and I are doing just fine other than some small problems that my wife has had but it is unrelated to her cancer!...she goes today for one of her 3 month x rays...we hope and pray that it is still looking good!...hope that you are doing ok!
  • luz del lago
    luz del lago Member Posts: 449
    #9
    chad76 said:

    doing good
    My wife and I are doing just fine other than some small problems that my wife has had but it is unrelated to her cancer!...she goes today for one of her 3 month x rays...we hope and pray that it is still looking good!...hope that you are doing ok!

    Wonderful!
    Sending prayers that results are good. Continue to live, love and laugh! I'm hanging in there. It's tough without Dennis, but I have to go on in my journey. Thank you for asking.

    Take care,

    Lucy
  • Biancarose
    Biancarose Member Posts: 1
    #10
    angelyn said:

    Thank you for the prayers
    Thank you both Lucy and Chad for your prayers. They are very appreciated and certainly needed. The doctor said that they would be using Cisplatin and VP 16 which I believe the VP 16 is eptoside? That is what she had the first go around and she had a good response. He said that we could also talk to the radiologist to see if there was a possibility of radiating again. As far as the new trial drug he did not tell us the name of it. He is going to give her one week of chemo then we will go back the Monday after and he will talk to us again. Not sure about what unless he is making sure that she has tolerated it. They also told us that they have a new anti-nausea drug that is supposed to last all week. I hope that it does because she certainly got EXTREMELY nauseated the last time.
    Love and best wishes-
    Angie

    SCLC
    Hi Angie,
    You are an angel taking care of your mom and grandmother. My mom was diagnosed in late August with SCLC. It's devastating to hear those words. I couldn't say the word "cancer" until recently. My mom just finished her chest radiation. Next,she is having radiation to her brain to prevent cancer going to her brain.
    She also is very nauseous. She has a difficult time eating because of it and also from the radiation to the chest area. She also developed shingles. I read it's common with cancer patients. She has severe pain and itching in her leg.
    Can you tell me the name of the nausea drug? I think when her stomach is empty she gets more nauseous. I suggested she eat a plain cracker occasionally to try to prevent the nausea.

    Good luck & God bless
    Biancarose
  • grannysb
    grannysb Member Posts: 21
    #11
    I am praying for this to
    I am praying for this to work ...........
  • angelyn
    angelyn Member Posts: 51
    #12
    grannysb said:

    I am praying for this to
    I am praying for this to work ...........

    Nausea medicine
    I want to thank all of you for your replies- every one of them is very appreciated.

    I am not sure of the name of the nausea medicine that they are giving her but I will ask for you when she goes back for chemo on April 4th. They put this med in her I.V. and it is supposed to alliviate nausea all week. My mom went through the same thing your mom is going through the first time she had chemo in July 2010. It was nausea, nausea, nausea. She lost about 40 pounds. She had no appetite AT ALL and when she did nothing tasted good to her. We finally got the doctor to put her on Compazine and Marinol. We gave both at the same time and it kept her from actually throwing up, but she said that the nauseous feeling never completely went away. She never got shingles, but I DID. The stress was what brought it out on me I suppose.

    We are going to get a PET scan again after her next chemo treatment to see if it is knocking down the mass. Her doctor said that it does in 40 to 50% of patients. I hope that she is lucky enough for it to happen. If it does, we are going to talk to the radiologist about radiating the lung again. This mass is over some from the original one so hopefully they will be able to do something. He also told us that they have a clinical trial going that has a new medicine that is doing extremely well in killing SCLC. Of course it is not FDA approved yet, they have only tested it on mice in the lab. If we have to we will try this. I was very excited about this trial. Wouldn't it be wonderful if it would kill SCLC or keep all our loved ones in remission?

    Talk to you soon-
    Angie
  • djomjo
    djomjo Member Posts: 7
    #13
    angelyn said:

    Nausea medicine
    I want to thank all of you for your replies- every one of them is very appreciated.

    I am not sure of the name of the nausea medicine that they are giving her but I will ask for you when she goes back for chemo on April 4th. They put this med in her I.V. and it is supposed to alliviate nausea all week. My mom went through the same thing your mom is going through the first time she had chemo in July 2010. It was nausea, nausea, nausea. She lost about 40 pounds. She had no appetite AT ALL and when she did nothing tasted good to her. We finally got the doctor to put her on Compazine and Marinol. We gave both at the same time and it kept her from actually throwing up, but she said that the nauseous feeling never completely went away. She never got shingles, but I DID. The stress was what brought it out on me I suppose.

    We are going to get a PET scan again after her next chemo treatment to see if it is knocking down the mass. Her doctor said that it does in 40 to 50% of patients. I hope that she is lucky enough for it to happen. If it does, we are going to talk to the radiologist about radiating the lung again. This mass is over some from the original one so hopefully they will be able to do something. He also told us that they have a clinical trial going that has a new medicine that is doing extremely well in killing SCLC. Of course it is not FDA approved yet, they have only tested it on mice in the lab. If we have to we will try this. I was very excited about this trial. Wouldn't it be wonderful if it would kill SCLC or keep all our loved ones in remission?

    Talk to you soon-
    Angie

    antinausea drug
    hi there, my brother has been treated for sclc as well. He had cistplatin and Etoposide. they gave him Emend and Aloxi for antinausea. And he also got a prescription of Zofran too. He hasn't had any nausea. Just heartburn and hiccups really bad. His throat was sore for awhile and he was wincing everytime he swallowed so they gave us a prescription for magic mouthwash. He used it for 3 days and now only uses it every other day or so. They had nystatin(I think), decadron, benadrly and lidocaine as their mixture and it worked like a charm. I used to use that as an old chemo nurse years ago but it didn't really help. But now they've added the decadron and it's great. Best wishes to you. God bless.
  • grannysb
    grannysb Member Posts: 21
    #14
    Biancarose said:

    SCLC
    Hi Angie,
    You are an angel taking care of your mom and grandmother. My mom was diagnosed in late August with SCLC. It's devastating to hear those words. I couldn't say the word "cancer" until recently. My mom just finished her chest radiation. Next,she is having radiation to her brain to prevent cancer going to her brain.
    She also is very nauseous. She has a difficult time eating because of it and also from the radiation to the chest area. She also developed shingles. I read it's common with cancer patients. She has severe pain and itching in her leg.
    Can you tell me the name of the nausea drug? I think when her stomach is empty she gets more nauseous. I suggested she eat a plain cracker occasionally to try to prevent the nausea.

    Good luck & God bless
    Biancarose

    I dont know if this is the
    I dont know if this is the same as your talking about but I take Emend on the 1st day of surgery and then I take Compazine 4x day for 3 days and then PRN. This seems to be helping with the nausea
  • hope0310
    hope0310 Member Posts: 320
    #15
    djomjo said:

    antinausea drug
    hi there, my brother has been treated for sclc as well. He had cistplatin and Etoposide. they gave him Emend and Aloxi for antinausea. And he also got a prescription of Zofran too. He hasn't had any nausea. Just heartburn and hiccups really bad. His throat was sore for awhile and he was wincing everytime he swallowed so they gave us a prescription for magic mouthwash. He used it for 3 days and now only uses it every other day or so. They had nystatin(I think), decadron, benadrly and lidocaine as their mixture and it worked like a charm. I used to use that as an old chemo nurse years ago but it didn't really help. But now they've added the decadron and it's great. Best wishes to you. God bless.

    PET.....
    Let us know how the PET comes out. SCLC is such a mover, it sounds to me from what I have read that it has not moved out of her lung, to me that is a good sign at this point. If the PET shows that is the case, I would be all means go for another round of chemo.

    Rads suck....well, so does cancer and chemo, but rads do such nasty things, I truly do not get the "preventative" radiation....

    Be good to yourself and keep us posted....
    Elysia
  • kelli1843
    kelli1843 Member Posts: 72
    #16
    hope0310 said:

    PET.....
    Let us know how the PET comes out. SCLC is such a mover, it sounds to me from what I have read that it has not moved out of her lung, to me that is a good sign at this point. If the PET shows that is the case, I would be all means go for another round of chemo.

    Rads suck....well, so does cancer and chemo, but rads do such nasty things, I truly do not get the "preventative" radiation....

    Be good to yourself and keep us posted....
    Elysia

    I was diagnosed with SCLC
    I was diagnosed with SCLC last January and did chemo & rad Jan - May 2010. Scan showed significant decrease then. But, Dec scan showed activity in same tumor, so now doing chemo again, as of Jan 2011.

    I'm on exact same chemo drugs and schedule as before. No rad this time. Mid point scan last week shows tumor decrease already.
  • angelyn
    angelyn Member Posts: 51
    #17
    kelli1843 said:

    I was diagnosed with SCLC
    I was diagnosed with SCLC last January and did chemo & rad Jan - May 2010. Scan showed significant decrease then. But, Dec scan showed activity in same tumor, so now doing chemo again, as of Jan 2011.

    I'm on exact same chemo drugs and schedule as before. No rad this time. Mid point scan last week shows tumor decrease already.

    sorry for no reply
    Sorry friends for not posting sooner. My mother just got out of the hospital Saturday so I have not been around the computer for a few days. Last week I went to see her on my lunch break as I usually do and she was running a 102.7 fever so I took her to the emergency room and her white blood cells were practically non-existent. After oodles of antibiotics, two units of blood, and neupegan, (spelled wrong), she is doing some better. The doctor told us that he may have to push the chemo out a couple of weeks but we will find out Monday for sure. I hope when we do the PET scan again that we get as good a result as you did Kelli! Congrats to all of us who are making progress against this rotten disease!!!
    Angie

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