wiesia

5-Fu is a tsandard chemo used in many cancers. My mother had it in breast cancer and it worked very well for her. The third one is a platinum drug - those ahve the best results of all chemos for lung cancer (statistically only, of course).

You might want to try Merinol. It is syntetic marijuana and often given to cancer patients to increase their apetite.

Yup... after the war there was a hige increase in colon and stomach cancer in Poland. All atributed to the increased consumption of meat, especially cured meats.

My father had shortness of breath that has progressed very rapidly (in about 4 weeks from first SOB episode he could hardly breath). I think now that we did not understand fully how dangerous that could be. If you google dyspnea and lung cancer you get some very good articles on what to do in such situation. the first thing is to try to understand what is going on and try to remedy it if possible. For example: airway obstruction can be sometimes corrected, pleural effusion drained etc. For the symptoms you could try cortisosteroids, bronchodilators, morphine elixirs, and oxigen. But I would arge you to explore whether this SOB can be corrected. It could be very dangerous. As for the itching... you say that he has liver mets ? Liver problems do show up often as itching. I know because I have a chronic liver/gallblader condition. I do not know what to advice here besides maybe talking to an internist or a specialist in liver diseases. He might know what to do.

Rib is a tricky place for a met because the bone is so thin. My father had bone mets in the spine (one spot) and the clavicle with no symptoms. My mother (who has breast cancer) has mets to a spot on the spine and a rib. On the spine the met was a nodule on the top of the bone. It never caused any pain but they radiated it anyway. The one on the rib is like a smudge and has detroyed quite a bit of bone. It was painful. They radiated it also. Now my mother says that pain is mostly gone (she also takes Aredia) but at the very end of the rib the bone seems tender. She is on femara also (as a chemo). Her tumor marker CEA dropped from 5.5 to 2.5 so it seems that the bones are healing.

I did some research on that for my father. In his case we did not know the type of NSCLC he had. The original bronchoscopy did not check that and later our doctor did not consider it necessary to check. I asked about and he said that in Europe squamous cell is more common but even with it they use Avastin unless the cancer is centrally located and ulcerated (bleeding) or there are brain mets. As for the usual types of chemo: I think there is practically no research on the activity in different types although recently there are some noises coming about treatments of BAC.

Yup, my mother was taking Wobenzyme (sp ?) all through her treatments (breast cancer). They are big in Europe. The theory is that they allow both supplements and the chemo drugs to penetrate cells better (I do not remember the exact mechanism but something about "eating up" defensive shells ??). She was on a ton of various supplements at that time (anything that medline had positive results on). Whatever it was, something worked because she did very well.

A friend of mine (age 60) was found recently to have many pulmonary embolisms. This was found after he was getting tired just from walking a bit. He does not have cancer that anyone can see. The doctors did suggest that it could still be a cancer but not visible at the moment causing the clots but they also directed him to a specialist in this matters (somewhere in NYC). That doctor suggested that it could very well be a genetic predisposition to embolisms in the lungs. He is being watched now. Soooo, who know...

how wonderful !!!!

I am so sorry, Amanda.

My father had Gemzar. First with cisplatin then alone (plus Avastin). He felt slight nausea for few days and was a bit tired but generally it was so so much easier than Cisplatin. We were able to go every day for few hour long walks along Baltic beaches with no problem. Good luck. I hope this combo will work for you !!!

I think the doctors are still trying to figure that out. In the carboplatin/taxol +Avastin trial they used around 200/kg (I think) every three/four weeks. In the recent trial in Europe, Cisplatin/Gemzar +Avastin they lowered that to 100/kg (and after a while to 70/kg). The results were similar. My father was taking 100/kg every three weeks.

Soooooo, is he really cute or already getting old with skin hanging down ?

I keep asking myself the same question. I have even "asked " my father to give me some kind of sign. But nothing. Not even a dream. My aunt had a dream with him being very happy and my mother had an unusual dream: she has seen me jumping (to my death) from a tall building; she ran down and at the bottom of the building noticed my father on the pavement jumping up and down from joy; she yelled " are you nuts ! our daugther just killed yourself and you are so happy ?"; and he pointed at me: standing there on the sidewalk, healthy and happy. Weird, no ?? I guess it boils down to what you Mother believes as far as life after death is concerned. My parents are (in principle) Catholic but I do not think they really believe in God, heaven, hell etc. So it is difficult.

Trial is just treated as another treatment. There could be other options after that. Yes, it is true that many trials would not accept patients which were on too many lines of chemo, for example. Yes, unfortunately, patients do run out of options. One scary thing about lung cancer vs other cancers is the speed at which it grows. And the general deterioration of patient's body it causes. Often it is not even the question whether another option exists (because in theory it does) but whether patient is well enough to even consider it.

Aaron, Here are some tricks my mother uses. She has mets to L4 and also herniated disc at L1. Stretching: lay on the floor and put your legs on the sit of a chair. Your thighs should be at the right angle to your spine. Your knees also locked at 90%. While sleeping: sleep on your stomach, one leg straight, the other bent with the knee pulled towards your chin. It helps her.

How wonderful !!!!!

spicysashimi is taking it

Which lung was it ? Healthy lung would show dark, no ? It is the other parts: heart, arteries etc that show white. My brother, after one of the Dr visits, was trying to convince me that the superior vena cava was my father's tumor. Tells you how people listen to doctors when they are all in nerves.

Randy, many thanks for posting that. Another warning about using untested approaches to treatment.

Amanda, I am so sorry to hear that. My father had it as well though doctors are not sure whether that was what killed him. It was terrifying to watch the speed at which SOB was getting worse and worse. His left lung was commpromised and the spread was in the right lung. At some point the right lung basically shut down. He lived a week from that time. It is still my belief that the doctors could have possibly "open up" the left lung if they tried harder but ... I will never know.

I liked that piece as well !

I have a similar story. When I was a postdoc at the University of Chicago (math department) there was a woman there with leukiemia. She just got her PhD, a job at Princeton and was busy writing this paper that has eventually appeared in the number one math journal. When she was not doing math she played soccer with math-women group. I could not believe that she died few days after I have seen her copying and polishing her paper in the copy room.

Long warm bath works for me. You have to get a good timing though: if you stay too long in the water you get dehydrated. A good sign of dehydration is your hands getting "wrinkled".

I am with Ernie on that. Why to be in a trial at all ? Insurance should cover both Tarceva and Avastin.