Alimta

[cjolaw]

Does anyone have any experience with alimta? My mother stage IV NSCLC, malignant pleural effusion, had the first round of chemo--cisplatin and taxotere plus avastin, then moved to avastin as a single agent therapy for three months--it shrunk the tumors and helped with the pleural effusion. Now 3 months later new and more aggressive tumors are back. The onc wants to use alimta as a single agent therapy...

Any experiences you will share with me while on this drug?

[recce101]

Hi, welcome to the LCSC!

I don't have any personal experience with Alimta "yet," but it and a couple of others are waiting in the wings for the day Avastin stops working for me, as it very probably will at some point. There are a number of discussions about Alimta on onctalk.com, a terrific resource run by Dr. Jack West, a Seattle oncologist who posts here when his time permits and answers several questions every day through his own site. You can type Alimta in the search window on his home page, or for starters you might look at this introductory article and discussion on the drug:

http://onctalk.com/?p=274

You don't have to register to browse through the site, but you do if you want to ask a question. A lot of us have registered with the same usernames on onctalk as here.

You'll get more responses when our mainland friends wake up. Aloha,

Ned

[palves]

Hi my dad had Alimta - not a favorable response - he is now on Tarceva

Paula

[Ry]

Alimta helped my husband but it was hard on him, terrible fatigue. It shrunk the cancer though so I hope it does the same for your mom.

[j ross]

My husband had significangt shrinkage on Alimta {together with Avastin) side effects were tolerable. Flue like symptons for a few days.

Jennie

[dadstimeon]

Had Alimta and only problem I had was fatigue. It did work and to me it was worth it.

[shineladysue]

Alimta kept hubby stable for a while, but it caused extreme fatigue and breathing issues. He developed pneumonitis while on it. Several have had from mild to extreme issues with breathing and lung infammation with Alimta... be aware of any increase in SOB and report it to the doctor immediately. Best of luck. It has been helpful to many.

[DrWest]

Ned already gave you a bit of the run-down from my oncologist perspective -- thanks, Ned. Alimta's definitely among the more active drugs in lung cancer, and often well tolerated. I've encouraged people to log their experiences with various chemo agents and combinations and other treatments in a folder at OncTalk so that people can find the reviews when needed. Here's some comments on Alimta as a single agent:

http://onctalk.com/bbPress/topic.php?id=444&replies=10

Good luck.

-Dr. West