Etoposide

acostello · September 2005

Has anyone had any experience with this drug and ovarian cancer. My wife is recurrent and after surgery and 24 continous months of many chemo's she has not gone into remission and her tumors keep growing. They started her on this Etoposide this week and her CA 125 is still on the rise as is the tumor growth. Any suggestions

smithzoo · October 2005

I am a 3 year survivor of small cell cancer of the ovary. I did have etoposide, but not by itself. The first 3 cycles of chemo that I had were cisplatin and etoposide, they were not too bad to tolerate. However, the doses weren't that high. When this didn't work they gave my alternating combinations of vincristine, adromycin, and cytoxin; then ifex, cisplatin and etoposide (my spelling is probably horrible on these). Each of these combinations were continuous IV for 3 to 5 days straight in the hopsital. The reason they took out the big guns is because small cell doesn't usually occur in the ovary so they had no real protocols to follow. Due to the etoposide my heart grew to twice it's normal size (a rare side effect they said) and with the combined cycles they said I had gone over the recommended lifetime doses so I couldn't use it anymore. After 12 cycles of those two combos they went to weekly taxol which I had for 6 months. The ironic thing was after the taxol the tumors in my liver shrunk and then vanished. I guess the end result is I don't know what actually helped. It did get harder and harder to take and the chemo ate my blood faster than I could make it even with the help of procrit, neupogen and neumega injections. I had 26 blood transfusions, and many platelets. However, in the end....it all worked out! My outlook on things at the time was that I was willing to try whatever might work.

acostello · October 2005

smithzoo said:
I am a 3 year survivor of small cell cancer of the ovary. I did have etoposide, but not by itself. The first 3 cycles of chemo that I had were cisplatin and etoposide, they were not too bad to tolerate. However, the doses weren't that high. When this didn't work they gave my alternating combinations of vincristine, adromycin, and cytoxin; then ifex, cisplatin and etoposide (my spelling is probably horrible on these). Each of these combinations were continuous IV for 3 to 5 days straight in the hopsital. The reason they took out the big guns is because small cell doesn't usually occur in the ovary so they had no real protocols to follow. Due to the etoposide my heart grew to twice it's normal size (a rare side effect they said) and with the combined cycles they said I had gone over the recommended lifetime doses so I couldn't use it anymore. After 12 cycles of those two combos they went to weekly taxol which I had for 6 months. The ironic thing was after the taxol the tumors in my liver shrunk and then vanished. I guess the end result is I don't know what actually helped. It did get harder and harder to take and the chemo ate my blood faster than I could make it even with the help of procrit, neupogen and neumega injections. I had 26 blood transfusions, and many platelets. However, in the end....it all worked out! My outlook on things at the time was that I was willing to try whatever might work.

My spelling of these drugs will be far worse that yours but it's OK It's gets the point across. I am so happy that you are in remission! My wife started out on texol and carboplatium she did that for 6 mos. Then on to 1 yr of Gemzar, she was finished with that and her CA 125 shot up after 3 weeks, they then put her on Temocksifin (spelling)
for once a month for 6 months, her CA 125 kept going up. She then got a bad infection in her port and she spent 3 weeks in the hospital fianlly took the port out all the while she was off her chemo when we went for our next exam the Dr told us that her CA125 had risen again and that that the 3 new tumors they found were all malignet nd they started her on a oral dose of etoposide once daily for we don't know how long, the Dr told us that they are trying to shrink the tumors to give her some quality of life. Thanks for your input and I pray for your continued healing. Art C.

pj7494 · October 2005

smithzoo said:
I am a 3 year survivor of small cell cancer of the ovary. I did have etoposide, but not by itself. The first 3 cycles of chemo that I had were cisplatin and etoposide, they were not too bad to tolerate. However, the doses weren't that high. When this didn't work they gave my alternating combinations of vincristine, adromycin, and cytoxin; then ifex, cisplatin and etoposide (my spelling is probably horrible on these). Each of these combinations were continuous IV for 3 to 5 days straight in the hopsital. The reason they took out the big guns is because small cell doesn't usually occur in the ovary so they had no real protocols to follow. Due to the etoposide my heart grew to twice it's normal size (a rare side effect they said) and with the combined cycles they said I had gone over the recommended lifetime doses so I couldn't use it anymore. After 12 cycles of those two combos they went to weekly taxol which I had for 6 months. The ironic thing was after the taxol the tumors in my liver shrunk and then vanished. I guess the end result is I don't know what actually helped. It did get harder and harder to take and the chemo ate my blood faster than I could make it even with the help of procrit, neupogen and neumega injections. I had 26 blood transfusions, and many platelets. However, in the end....it all worked out! My outlook on things at the time was that I was willing to try whatever might work.

I am so thankful to find a long term survivor. My daughter has small cell cervical cancer stage 3B. Her first round of chemo was cisplatin and etopiside. 6 rounds, 5 days a week, 6 hours a day in a 21 day cycle. The tumor shrunk from 9cm to less than an inch, but when they attempted surgery they found it had attached to the small intestines. They did not do the surgery. We are on a second round now. Cisplatin plus CPT11. After 3 treatments we had to stop the cisplatin due to neuropathy. (numbness in hands and feet spread to above the knees and she has to use a walker) I have been in despair because I could not find a survivor. Thank you. You have renewed my hope and when she wakes up I am going to show her this message.
A mother renewed

smithzoo · October 2005

pj7494 said:
I am so thankful to find a long term survivor. My daughter has small cell cervical cancer stage 3B. Her first round of chemo was cisplatin and etopiside. 6 rounds, 5 days a week, 6 hours a day in a 21 day cycle. The tumor shrunk from 9cm to less than an inch, but when they attempted surgery they found it had attached to the small intestines. They did not do the surgery. We are on a second round now. Cisplatin plus CPT11. After 3 treatments we had to stop the cisplatin due to neuropathy. (numbness in hands and feet spread to above the knees and she has to use a walker) I have been in despair because I could not find a survivor. Thank you. You have renewed my hope and when she wakes up I am going to show her this message.
A mother renewed

First of all I want to thank you. I was feeling down this week since I've been sick with a virus and it made me feel a lot like I did when we first discovered the cancer.....bringing back many painful memories. It is so odd how something can bring those memories flooding back to you. Anyway, I read your reply and it really made me feel good to know that my participation on this board helped someone else feel better. It was very sweet of you to tell me that.

I was wondering how old your daughter is and how is she doing? I was diagnosed a few months before my 30th birthday. I had neuropathy from the chemo also. I don't think I had it as bad as it sounds for your daughter. My fingers were numb most of the time during chemo which made doing fine motor skills like buttoning things, very hard if not impossible to do. It also affected my feet and legs causing a lot of pain and leg cramps...but I was still able to walk. I'd like to tell you it went away after the chemo since for many people it does. However, my neuropathy is still here affecting my extremities mostly. It is quite painful at times, but I have chronic abdominal pain from the chemo so I'm on long term pain meds that helps out. I'm sure your doctor has tried it already but it never hurts to mention something...have they tried Neurotin to help with her neuropathy?
I will keep your daughter in my thoughts and prayers and hope to someday "talk" to her in this forum when she feels up to using the computer. It is nice to visit with someone who knows what you're going through.
If you ever want to ask a question or have someone to "talk" to, or even your daughter for that matter here's my email smithzoo03@hotmail.com

Etoposide

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