Is there anybody out there in the same situation

karry
karry Member Posts: 6
edited March 2014 in Lymphoma (Hodgkin and Non-Hodgkin) #1
I am the primary caregiver for my mother who has had nhl for the last 5 years. When it started she had chop chemo and it came back and she had e-shap with a view to a stem cell transplant but she got a heart attach so couldnt go through with it. Now she has very limited options and the cancer is still active. Oncologists can't confirm whether its high grade or low grade because the biospys have differed. Her last chance we are told is zevalin but we have also been told this will not work if the nhl is high grade.does anyone out there have any experience of this.

Comments

  • AuthorUnknown
    AuthorUnknown Member Posts: 1,537 Member
    #2
    Hello,

    You may want to consider contacting the American Cancer Society's National Cancer Information Center. Cancer Information Specialists are available 24 hours a day and can assist you with your questions. They can be reached at 1-800-227-2345.

    I wish your mother the very best on her treatments.

    Take care and be well,

    Dana
    CSN Dana
  • karry
    karry Member Posts: 6
    #3
    AuthorUnknown said:

    Hello,

    You may want to consider contacting the American Cancer Society's National Cancer Information Center. Cancer Information Specialists are available 24 hours a day and can assist you with your questions. They can be reached at 1-800-227-2345.

    I wish your mother the very best on her treatments.

    Take care and be well,

    Dana
    CSN Dana

    Thanks for your reply. The problem is we are Irish and living in Ireland and Zevalin is a new treatment in this country and I was hoping someone out there had experience of dealing with it.We have been told that if the NHL is high grade zevalin will not work and she will only have a few months of life left as she can't have any more chemo. I guess I am just grasping at straws to see of any one else every sucesfully survived this kind of situation. Again thanks for your reply

    Karry
  • donaldo
    donaldo Member Posts: 36
    #4
    I've never heard of zevalin before. You probably know by now if the zevalin is working or not anyway.
    However I do have experience with transplants after heart attacks. I had one a month after a major heart attack, so they aren't completely out of the question. The main two reasons they wouldn't want to do the transplant after the heart attack are drug incompatabilities, or she is too weak to go through with it. In the first case, if the cardioligist and oncoligist work togeather they can work around the drug incompatibilities. If she's just to weak for the transplant there are a host of other options such as the zevalin, ritoxin, and immuno therapies, that won't cure her, but could buy her some time to allow her to regain strength in order to make it through the transplant. Even if she doesn't regain enough strength for a full transplant, there are mini transplants that might help or at least buy more time to allow her to regain her strength for another try at a full transplant.
    As long as she's still breathing, there's hope.

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