I JUST RECEIVED ADJUCANT TREATMENT PLAN

[TomR4th]

* Just returned from the oncologist & he is recommending an adjucant treatment plan

* Taxol & Carboplaxin every three weeks for 4 treatments..(please pardon any typos as I'm reading his notes

* It appears as if the lymph nodes are clear after the surgery to remove the tumors

* They recommend this treatment to increase the odds against recurrance..

Can anyone share their opinions on this treatment & any experiences pto or con?

Thank you & God Bless..

Tom

[Kasey]

Tom,

It is sounding very good, I must say!!!! You are being offered the exact same regimen as I had following surgery. I am here and NED, so there ya go!

Feel free to PM if you have any questions! I am just so very pleased for you, Tom!

Kasey

[Ry]

I am glad you have a plan in place. Those chemos are quite hard on the blood counts so make sure you take care not to catch anything. Get a shot for the counts if they get low. Good luck-- I am glad things are going well.

[elnodel]

That's exactly what Len received after surgery, taxol and carboplatin, 4 treatments at 3 week intervals. He went through it really quite easily; his blood counts eventually took a hit but they gave him neulasta and procrit when needed and those did the trick. He had no other problems with the chemo, felt good through the entire procedure. Of course there WAS the hair loss, but it's all back now -- he had chemo in the summer and was sporting some nice curly locks by December!

Len went on to have radiation, but that was only because he had one errant lymph node and we wanted to make sure any others lurking within were dispatched. Since your lymph nodes are fine, there seems little reason for you to go on to that.

Hope you do as well as Len did. We know he was lucky, but the chemotherapy they have today is such an improvement over the old ones and they have all these preventatives that they give you to make sure you don't have dire inter/re-actions.

Ellen

[kimblanchard]

VERY GOOD plan and very effective. I had very little side effects from that combo. Some fatigue and flu like aches on the 4th thru 6th days following treatment. You're in good hands.

jim

[shineladysue]

Tom,

I would highly recommend you go for the adjucant treatment plan. To put it simply, my husband had stage 1 cancer 5 years ago , had surgery and no chemo follow up. He had a recurrence a little over 2 years ago and passed away last month. At the very same time, we had a friend that also had surgery ,she had the chemo... she is now 5 years out and NED. At that time , it was not known if it would make a difference , but it is my belief that it is becoming more and more evident that it does. If at all possible , I would say , give yourself every chance. The chemo may be a little rough, but if my husband had been able to do it over again, he would have had it. God Bless.

Sue

[carolhg]

Sounds good to me Tom. I had the same treatment and chemo drug. I had it twice, three weeks apart. It has been nine months since my surgery and I am NED. So I would say that it sounds like they have you on a good plan to me.

[Maryanne]

Hi Tom,

Joel had the same chemo as you, 4 treatments 3 weeks apart. The chemo takes about 5 hours. You might want to bring lunch and a good book. Joels chemo area had tv's.

He was lucky as his counts were fine. The chemo is doable. It hits about the 3rd or 4th day after the treatment. He had flu like pains in his legs. If you can get your better half to massage your legs that will feel so much better. Joel took Perosets at that time, that helped him. That passes in a couple of days and then he feels fine.

You may feel a numbness in your feet and legs. Most of that will go away but you still might have some permanent numbness. He took vitamin B6( 500mgs) and B12(1000 mg) that helped decrease the numbness.

Good Luck! I am thrilled your are doing the adjunctive chemo. It will all be over before you know it. Trust me you will be fine.

Maryanne

[Don M]

Tom:

I am glad you are doing the chemo. I wish I had done it after my first surgery. I am on my third cancer now in a little over 2 years, and it is beginning to look like it is a recurrence of the original cancer. MAYBE if I had done it after my first surgery I would not be having my third cancer.

I did carboplatin/gemzar afer my second cancer. Apparently it did not work, because my third cancer was forming as I was finishing up my chemo. I guess that it did not respond to the chemo because maybe I should have had taxol instead of gemzar, or maybe it was a secondary cancer that would not respond to a first line treatment. Who knows? I am glad I did the chemo anyway the second time, because at least I know I did every thing possible to keep it from coming back.

I am taking image guided radiation to kill the third tumor. After that I will take adjuvant chemo again, but this time it will be alimta, a drug used for secondary cancer.

Don M

[blaze100]

Hi Tom, My plan after surgery was a "whif" of taxol and carboplatin every week for 6 weeks during radiation. The first 1 cc of Taxol made me stop breathing {so make sure someone watches you carefully when they first start the Taxol drip, if your face starts to flush, they should stop drip). I've heard others say Taxol caused reaction too. So I just did carboplatin and radiation. And.... so far, so good.

I wish you good luck on the chemo Tom. I think it is wise choice. Barb

PS. Be sure to bring your favorite snacks as they give you something before the chemo drip that causes extreme muchies.