Chemo by your individual weight?

I asked the same question and was told the same answer as they gave you.  The pharmacist went by my weight and it's been adjusted, so I could tolerated it better.

Doris

I'm weighed before every treatment and the dose is adjusted accordingly.

desertgirl947 said:

Went by weight -- sometimes I

Went by weight -- sometimes I thought they got carried away with weighing though . . . I got weighed chemo day; got weighed the next day, which was shot day; got weighed Friday the following week when it was blood draw time; got weighed chemo day.  It made sense to me that they would weigh me every chemo day, though.  The concoction was made up according to my weight.

My oncologist takes the issue of height/weight very seriously when calculating chemo dosages.  Like desertgirl, during chemo, I was weighed every time I walked into the office...but especially on chemo day, and then my doctor would come in and verify the chemo nurse's calculations before anything was started.

I even once heard a patient loudly arguing with the nurse as they were weighing her...your scale isn't right, I had a big lunch, I don't weigh that much, etc.  My doctor intervened and gently but firmly stood his ground, telling her how critical it was for calculating chemo dosage, and that they regularly have their scale calibrated for just this reason.

Believe me...I sure WANTED to tell them their scale was whacked, I didn't weigh that much, write down a smaller number, please....but this is one time when you just have to be out and proud about your weight!

Traci

SIROD said:

Agree

but this is one time when you just have to be out and proud about your weight!

I agree with you Traci.

I will have to ask my new oncologist about the reductions and it's effects.  I won't see him until October.  The amount I receive has been reduced several times, due to my anemia and low iron.  My  oncologist said, if I continued with the same amount, I soon would not be able to take it at all.  My body wasn't handling it that well.  Better some than none.  I feel better this time around but I wonder if it is to low.

Doris

Article I found on another board:

Are obese people with cancer getting chemotherapy doses too small for them?

excerpt: 
A paper Gary Lyman at Duke University published in the journal Nature in August said that a 20 percent reduction in chemo doses lowered remission and cure rates by half in animal experiments and helped the tumors develop resistance to the drugs. Other research in people found lower survival among those getting less chemo as well.

Even if a patient develops a problem from a chemo treatment and doctors have to dial it back, it's important to try a full dose the next time around so the patient gets all the treatment intended, Lyman said.

That happened to Tracy Smith, a 46-year-old Durham, N.C., woman treated at Duke in 2011 for breast cancer that had spread to more than a dozen lymph nodes. Doctors gave her full chemo doses based on her weight, which at 285 pounds classified her as obese.

Three times, high fevers put her in the hospital, and one treatment was cut short because doctors thought it was causing wheezing and possible lung damage. But she resumed and finished the intended treatment and has been cancer-free since then.

After hearing you have cancer, "you're just kind of in a fog" and don't think to ask about doses of the drugs you need, she said. "I trusted my doctor. Doctors should be well aware of what you can tolerate. You should do whatever you can to fight this beast."

Smith's tumor was fueled by estrogen - a hormone made in abundance by fat tissue. Robin McRath, a floral designer who helps run a women's shelter in Ludington, Mich., had the same type.

"It's like a playground, an amusement park, for cancer cells when you're fat," she said. She was only was 41 when her cancer was diagnosed five years ago, and her oncologist, Dr. Carol Peterson, treated her with full doses based on her weight - about 240 pounds, which put her in the obese category.

"We didn't discuss dosage. That didn't matter to me - I just wanted to get it out of my system," she said of the cancer, and praised the treatments to prevent one of chemo's most feared side effects. "There are fantastic anti-nausea medicines. I was never sick one day."

McRath is active in the Obesity Action Coalition, an education and advocacy group. A spokesman said the group was unaware of the dosing issue for obese patients.

Not all doctors are aware either. Luckily for McRath, hers was. Peterson said she uses full doses unless a patient has other health issues.

"If that's their only problem - if they're just overweight or obese - they can do quite well" with full weight-based doses, she said.

Duke's Lyman agreed, and offered this advice to patients: "Ask your doctor how they plan to treat you and whether you're going to get the full dosing. The doctor may have a good reason not to, but you should have that discussion."

Story at: 
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-204_162-57603715/are-obese-people-with-cancer-getting-chemotherapy-doses-too-small-for-them/