Leukine Or Intreferon

SonyaWood
SonyaWood Member Posts: 1
edited March 2014 in Skin Cancer #1
I have a choice to make... clinical trial options are A)Leukine for 1 year (14days on 14 days off) B) Interferon for 1 year (20 high doses, then decreasing doses for the next 11 months). If anyone has any insight on these please help!I have 4 kids (13, 7, 3 year old twins) and I'm suppose to start nursing school in July.

Comments

  • GinSue
    GinSue Member Posts: 19
    #2
    My Interferon experience
    Hey there! I don't know anything about Leukine but I did the Inerferon. My treating oncologist at the time only prescribed the 20 high doses and told me that the 11 month treatment at home had been shown to not provide any added benefit. So we only did the 20 high doses. It is very grueling and makes you very sick and tired. Everything about smells and tastes changes. However, it is doable but you will need help to get through because of the weakness you may experience. With that said, this treatment did not "cure" my melanoma. I was diagnosed in Sept of 2007, had the treatment in Dec 2007 and had recurrence in April 2008. There were other factors though. I had lymph nodes removed in my groin area and the recurrence was in-transit disease as a result of the removal of those lymph nodes. I don't know if this information is helpful to you but that was my experience. Good luck and God bless!
  • dsnaz
    dsnaz Member Posts: 2
    #3
    Leukine info
    This month will be the last of my Leukine treatments. The first couple of months i had body aches that were kinda like when your coming down with the flu, but they were not unbearable.After that it got better and to the point that I didnt even have side effects. I had a friend that did interferon and it made him real sick. With the Leukine treatments I had to give myself or have someone give me the injections of the drug. My Dr. told me that taking this drug would reduce the chance of my Melanoma coming back by 15% but I figured every little bit helps. I did have it come back though this last Jan. so now I gotta see what the next treatment is. I hope this helps with your decision good luck and stay positive. I am being treated at Mayo clinic my Dr. told me if I wanted to do Interferon he would refer me to another Dr.
  • mvincent2003
    mvincent2003 Member Posts: 2
    #4
    Leukine
    I know this is a hard decission you have to make. I was diagnosed October 1, 2009 with stage 3 Melanoma and my doctor had been working with the doctors at Mayo Hospital and they told me that I had a better chance with the Leukine than I did with the interferon. Reasons why were 1. Leukine has less side effects. 2. Even though it's said to be still in a clinical trial for Melanoma there is a higher success rate with the clinical trials they are doing right now. 3. I would be able to work when I recieve the medication for the 1st month and with the interferon I would not be alble to because you will be getting it every day for a month then dropping down to fewer doses.

    I went with the doctors suggestion and started the injections at the end of October (14 days on then 14 days off.) Right now the plan is to do the injections for 3 years. At first the injections did make me have a lot of body aches and nausea with some fatigue. Since about Feb all I have experiencing from the injections are a little more tiredness then usuall and some injection site irritation.

    I know this has been a big situation thrown at you. But you will get through it. Good luck in your decision.

    Megan
  • rchm518
    rchm518 Member Posts: 2
    #5
    Interferon/Leukine
    My oncologist believes only in the initial 20 high dose interferon regimen. Followed by at least 12 months of Leukine. Another oncologist told me given my Stage 3C high risk of recurrence condition he would make me take interferon only for as long as it was tolerable. Good luck!
  • angelswatchingoverus
    angelswatchingoverus Member Posts: 2
    #6
    mvincent2003 said:

    Leukine
    I know this is a hard decission you have to make. I was diagnosed October 1, 2009 with stage 3 Melanoma and my doctor had been working with the doctors at Mayo Hospital and they told me that I had a better chance with the Leukine than I did with the interferon. Reasons why were 1. Leukine has less side effects. 2. Even though it's said to be still in a clinical trial for Melanoma there is a higher success rate with the clinical trials they are doing right now. 3. I would be able to work when I recieve the medication for the 1st month and with the interferon I would not be alble to because you will be getting it every day for a month then dropping down to fewer doses.

    I went with the doctors suggestion and started the injections at the end of October (14 days on then 14 days off.) Right now the plan is to do the injections for 3 years. At first the injections did make me have a lot of body aches and nausea with some fatigue. Since about Feb all I have experiencing from the injections are a little more tiredness then usuall and some injection site irritation.

    I know this has been a big situation thrown at you. But you will get through it. Good luck in your decision.

    Megan

    Leukine
    Hi Megan

    I just read your post. My husband was diagnosed with Stage III Melanoma, has had the surgery and is now trying to decide what treatments to do. We were given the choice of interferon for a year, or interferon for 1 mo. then leukine for 1 year. In your post you mentioned studies that suggest that Leukine works better then the interferon. do you happen to have the information on those studies ? or where I could find this.

    I have done quite a bit of research and have been unable to find this information.
    any help would greatly be appreciated
    thanks

    Claudia
  • angelswatchingoverus
    angelswatchingoverus Member Posts: 2
    #7
    mvincent2003 said:

    Leukine
    I know this is a hard decission you have to make. I was diagnosed October 1, 2009 with stage 3 Melanoma and my doctor had been working with the doctors at Mayo Hospital and they told me that I had a better chance with the Leukine than I did with the interferon. Reasons why were 1. Leukine has less side effects. 2. Even though it's said to be still in a clinical trial for Melanoma there is a higher success rate with the clinical trials they are doing right now. 3. I would be able to work when I recieve the medication for the 1st month and with the interferon I would not be alble to because you will be getting it every day for a month then dropping down to fewer doses.

    I went with the doctors suggestion and started the injections at the end of October (14 days on then 14 days off.) Right now the plan is to do the injections for 3 years. At first the injections did make me have a lot of body aches and nausea with some fatigue. Since about Feb all I have experiencing from the injections are a little more tiredness then usuall and some injection site irritation.

    I know this has been a big situation thrown at you. But you will get through it. Good luck in your decision.

    Megan

    Leukine
    Hi Megan

    I just read your post. My husband was diagnosed with Stage III Melanoma, has had the surgery and is now trying to decide what treatments to do. We were given the choice of interferon for a year, or interferon for 1 mo. then leukine for 1 year. In your post you mentioned studies that suggest that Leukine works better then the interferon. do you happen to have the information on those studies ? or where I could find this.

    I have done quite a bit of research and have been unable to find this information.
    any help would greatly be appreciated
    thanks

    Claudia
  • vertramper
    vertramper Member Posts: 4
    #8
    LEUKINE
    Hello, So Im wondering what you chose. I chose Leukine with 14 days on 14 days off and had great results. I made it 7 months and then my White Blood cell count went through the roof and my body shut down. It took a bit to come off it but I felt like the bionic man for a month.

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