types of chemo

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judycribb
judycribb Member Posts: 1
in Colorectal Cancer #1
Hello, My mom was diagnosed with Stage 4 colon cancer in December, 2009. She started with Folfox and that was working good until she had an allergic reaction after about 5 months. They continued the Folox without the Oxciliplatin and then in November, 2010 they found that was no longer working. They switched her to Folfiri and so far that is working good. They just did a pet scan that showed improvement. We were very happy to hear the news of the pet scan however the doctor gave us bad news. He said that once the Folfiri stops working there is nothing else. He said there is about a one in ten chance that anything else would work since the 2 main chemos are folfox and folfiri. Can anybody tell me if there really is no other options. That once these stop working, there is no other options. She is not a candidate for surgery so all we can count on is chemo. I am really hoping somebody can give us some hope because I am so worried that this will stop working and then we are out of options. We have decided to go to Mayo this summer to explore other options such as clinical trials but just wanted to know if anybody knows of any other chemo that they use for this type of cancer. Thank you so much for any information you can provide.

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  • molly1029
    molly1029 Member Posts: 9
    #2
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    my mother was also on folfox
    my mother was also on folfox and then avastin as maintence chemo and today found out her cancer in her lungs is growing again. They told her they were going to try Victibex. Don't know if this is an option for your mother but maybe you could look into it.
  • AnneCan
    AnneCan Member Posts: 3,673 Member
    #3
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    Welcome Judy
    I am sorry you need to be here but you have come to a good place. I was on folfox when I had radiation, then went to folfiri + avastin. Tuesday I had my first treatment of erbitux + irinotecan. In order to qualify to have the erbitux, they needed to test my tumour to see if I had a KRAS mutation; apparently this drug works best with people who don't have the mutation. I would find out if your mother has been KRAS tested + what the results were. If she has not been tested I would ask the onc about it. Good luck!
  • bigCrandy
    bigCrandy Member Posts: 75
    #4
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    more chemo options
    Hey Judy, I'm glad to see the folfiri is working. I've had folfox, folfiri + avastin, avastin alone, xeloda pills, erbitux, and vectibix + irinotecan. I'm now back on folfox after 4 years. The vectibix and irinotecan worked very well, it actually shrunk the tumors, I'm stage 4 with lung mets. You have to qualify for erbitux with a blood exam for KRAS mutation(negative). Anyway, I have to disagree with her oncologist, there are more options out there. Stay positive, Randy

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