Need advice quick

[kimd]

Need help! My dad was doing so well with chemo treatments, but after new scan results, cancer is growing back. Dr. started chemo today with Camptosar (sp?) and will be giving to him 1x week for 3 weeks for 90 mins each treatment. Don't know anything about this drug. Good news is bone scan doesn't show any new growth! My dad was doing so well with his treatments -- we are heartbroken. Need all the suggestions I can get right now. Is this the right treatment path? Should this drug be combined with anything else? Told my mom I would poll the "professionals" to see what you guys say. THANKS!!

[john]

Campostar (CPT-11) or Irinotecan is usually given with a platiunum based chemo like cisplatin or carboplatin.

CPT-11 combined with cisplatin has shown the best results (mostly from Japan) for SCLC. I believe this to be true, but make sure you double check

[hollyridge]

I agree that you should see about the Camptosar being combined with a Platinum based drug. The combination is what most oncs are using.

[kimd]

Thanks for the quick responses! This prompted me to call my dad's onc to see why he's only using Camptosar. I got to speak to a very good nurse (chemo specialist) and she said that since my dad's last chemo rounds included a platinum-based drug (carbo) that they didn't want to use it this time because they were afraid that it had had stopped working with his system. Has anyone ever heard of this? Since my dad's cancer started growing back (only in initial place -- no new places), I want to make sure we stay ahead of the growth since it can spread so quickly! Any ideas would be appreciated!

[john]

That seems to make sense. A big problem with lung cancer (not sure about others) is that they develop a resistance to chemo.

There are different drugs in clinical trials that are supposed to help with this resistance. Hopefully some day something will work

Pegs husband was on one for a while I think it was TLK 240 or something like that