Carboplatin and Gemzar

catman
catman Member Posts: 17
edited March 2014 in Lung Cancer #1
My Dad was just dx with stage IIIB Lung cancer. He is going to start chemo on Thursday. They will give him Carboplatin and Gemzar. Anyone out there have any experience with these two drugs. Trying to find out all I can about them. Side effects etc... Good or bad. Thanks

Comments

  • soccerfreaks
    soccerfreaks Member Posts: 2,788 Member
    #2
    Effects
    catman:

    I'm surprised no one has responded before now. I am a lung cancer survivor who had carboplatin, but have not experienced the other one you cite.

    You must be aware, first, that every individual seems to handle chemotherapy differently. When I was on cisplatin, it made me sick as a dog, whiie others told me they had no problem with it. I was warned that carboplatin and taxol would have the same sort of effect on me, but I had very little problem with them, other than hair loss and the occasional drop in platelet count that led to postponement of treatment and even booster shots.

    It IS true that some folks are allergic to carboplatin, and it IS true that they might not even find this out until their third or fourth treatment. It is also true, as indicated above, that some folks tell me that carbo made them severely nauseous.

    This may be why you have received no responses: it truly is different for everyone, and even your dad's oncologist probably wouldn't want to alert him to possible negative effects in advance, since to know them is to have them in some cases :).

    I wish your dad and his family the very best, along with good luck during his treatments!

    Take care,

    Joe
  • catman
    catman Member Posts: 17
    #3
    soccerfreaks said:

    Effects
    catman:

    I'm surprised no one has responded before now. I am a lung cancer survivor who had carboplatin, but have not experienced the other one you cite.

    You must be aware, first, that every individual seems to handle chemotherapy differently. When I was on cisplatin, it made me sick as a dog, whiie others told me they had no problem with it. I was warned that carboplatin and taxol would have the same sort of effect on me, but I had very little problem with them, other than hair loss and the occasional drop in platelet count that led to postponement of treatment and even booster shots.

    It IS true that some folks are allergic to carboplatin, and it IS true that they might not even find this out until their third or fourth treatment. It is also true, as indicated above, that some folks tell me that carbo made them severely nauseous.

    This may be why you have received no responses: it truly is different for everyone, and even your dad's oncologist probably wouldn't want to alert him to possible negative effects in advance, since to know them is to have them in some cases :).

    I wish your dad and his family the very best, along with good luck during his treatments!

    Take care,

    Joe

    Thanks Joe
    Joe - Thank you for responding. I was thinking the same thing. No one is responding because they dont want to give me the bad news. I am a 2 year stage III colon cancer survivor. I know chemo affects everyone differently. I was on oxyplatin and a couple others I cant recall right now. I had treatments every two weeks for six months. I breezed through it physically. However, my Dad is 72 years old and his treatments are scheduled every 3 weeks, which leads me to believe that these drugs are pretty powerful. I would never share any bad news with my Dad. I just wanted to know for myself, what he is going to be facing. He started chemo last thursday. Friday he felt great but today he has a slight fever and headache. Flu like symptoms. It will probably get worse before it gets better. Time will tell. Thank you for your input and good luck to you.
    Take care,

    Jeff
  • jagged
    jagged Member Posts: 55
    #4
    Drug combo
    Jeff,

    So true. I did not reply hoping someone else had experience with this combination.

    I have had both the drugs, just at different times. Gemzar was very very easy, but then it did nothing for my cancer.

    Carboplatin I had in combination with T????. The combo was easy enough to take, but six months down the way, I realized just how much it scrambled my brains; zero, zip, no short term memory. Between the Carboplatin and T???, I understand that Carboplatin is the easiest.

    --jag
  • Diane03
    Diane03 Member Posts: 42
    #5
    Carboplatin
    I had to stop during my 2nd treatment. I was receiving carboplatin and Taxol. It affected my heart rate to 230 bpm. Thank God I was having the treatment when it occurred so they were able to stabilize the heart. I have spoken to others, and as written in the responses, they don't have any probs.
    I am now on Gemzar- I sure hope that makes a difference in the tumor treatment. I have lung IV.
    Best wishes to you and your family
  • Unknown
    Unknown
    #6
    This comment has been removed by the Moderator

Discussion Boards