metronomic ? Daily xeloda, etc?

peterz54
peterz54 Member Posts: 341
edited August 2012 in Colorectal Cancer #1
Credit to Manwithnoname for introducing me to metronomic (repetitive low dose Chemo) therapy in his recent post. I found research to support this, and it appears to be a possible option for my wife who can no longer tolerate conventional full dose chemo.

is anyone else here on a low dose drug, say for example xeloda, daily or frequently, and has it changed anything for you?

Comments

  • manwithnoname
    manwithnoname Member Posts: 402
    #2
    Hi Peter
    Sorry your wife got to this stage, this stuff is still cutting edge with few trials. Most info is for paediatric brain tumours.

    Did find these for CRC;

    http://www.asco.org/ASCOv2/Meetings/Abstracts?&vmview=abst_detail_view&confID=74&abstractID=52450

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19318912

    http://gut.bmj.com/content/early/2012/06/07/gutjnl-2012-302410.extract

    I know it ain't a lot, you need to dig deep to find an Onc. who has looked into this.

    Lot's of metronomic research is coming from India and China where drug cost is a serious factor in treatment. Low dose = low cost.

    They found with brain tumours that even if the metronomic schedule stopped working, after a brief drug 'holiday' they could re-start the SAME schedule and they would respond.

    The implications of this are huge and might totally transform all chemo regimes in future.
  • pete43lost_at_sea
    pete43lost_at_sea Member Posts: 3,900 Member
    #3
    i never new it was called metronomic ?
    but the concept of low dose chemo has been discussed here for years, but i will checkout the recent studies.

    see challenge comes a silver lining, its nice to acknowledge ones contributions. we all contribute in our way. even a crazy smoothie attracks a nameless guy with a few good links.

    to boot, we get more publicity for non conventional treatments than i could ever dream of.

    god does work in very mysterious ways.

    If you go this way, i hope it helps your wife pete. you will find a way.

    hugs,
    Pete
  • tanstaafl
    tanstaafl Member Posts: 1,313 Member
    #4
    we're metronomic
    My wife's treatment with UFT is metronomic, daily in her case, even around surgery. We use daily chemo to stop blood, lymph borne tumor spread and hopefully stop growth of existing tumor sites more than kill existing nodes. UFT is a milder 5FU medicine. We depend on aggressive surgery to get the biggest, toughest, remotest ones out even if not everything.

    The nutrients and natural modulators have been enough to tip the balance in her favor after surgeries with a low residual tumor burden despite mCRC. She has had an extraordinary quality of life with greater than predicted longevity. Frequent IV vitamin C (true sodium ascorbate solution with magnesium salts) has been for accelerating wound healing, ameliorating chemo, tumor treatment co-adjuvant, and pain killer instead of morphine (after surgery).

    Xeloda had an initial study where daily was not quite as successful lengthwise as the 2 weeks on, 1 week off but is more tolerable. Basically American medicine has little experience with daily treatment, it is focused on Maximum Tolerable Dose that requires cycles with "rest" in between treatment periods and usually a limited number of cycles before immune burnout or other breakdowns.

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