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4 rounds or 6 rounds of chemo for SCLC


jcawork

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My Oncologist started by telling me 4 rounds and now has changed his mind to 6 rounds. My first round was Cis and VP 16 ( 4 expected rounds) then I got changed to Carbo and VP 16 starting round 2 dur to an ear reaction (and now 6 rounds to be done) as he considers carbo less toxic and less effective (Cis is still the first line of defense for sclc he claims).

How may rounds and what drugs as I am curious?

Thanks,

Jen

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Jen-I think I have told you this but others may not know.

I started with the cisplatin and camptosar for 6 mos. He said I had responded so well he wanted to go 3 more months. All went well til the neuropathy in the 8th month so the 9th month he switched the cisplatin to the carboplatin. I still to this day have quite a bit of neuropathy in my feet-nothing I can't deal with.

I know all the studies show anything more than 6 months does not seem to help anymore but here I am 3 1/2 yrs later so I ain't complainin :D

Love Cindy

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Jen, I just emailed you the link to this article....but for everyone else's information....I will post it here too:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/quer ... t=Abstract

This comparison of cisplatin/etoposide to carboplatin/etoposide indicates little difference in the effectiveness of one over the other....however it's noted that carboplatin is less toxic, a fact which you already know.

I'm not sure why some oncs go only for four cycles as opposed to six, but initially my onc said it would be "four to six" cycles...and once we got down to it, I'm scheduled for 6. Perhaps some patients who cannot tolerate the chemo as well get fewer cycles? My onc seems to think I'm a tough old bird, but even so while radiation is going on, I know he's reduced the amount of chemo a little bit. Once radiation is finished, I'm sure he'll up the dosage again for the last two chemo cycles.

I guess I look at the 6 cycles (as opposed to just 4) as "extra insurance" that the cancer cells are being killed. :!::!:

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the way my onc handled it, was he gave me a scan after three rounds of carbo/VP16. He said before the scan that if it was all gone he would do one more to be sure. If there was still a tumor he would go the full 6 rounds. I only had shrikage so ended up with 6 rounds. I think it really just depends on your oncologist.

Blessings

Betty

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My sister had 7 rounds of chemo (see profile below)--as someone else said, I think it depends on your oncologist & a lot of other variables--for my sister, cisplatin was not an option, I think because of her age (60's) & other pre-existing medical conditions. Her Dr. said it would be too hard on her body. I have heard of people having up to 8 rounds of chemo, & I guess after that the risks outweigh the benefits because of the side-effects of the chemo.

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Hi Jen,

My mother had 6 rounds of carbo/vp 16, followed by radiation. Her onc said that if she still shows signs of disease at her next CT scan, he will give her 2 more rounds, for a total of 8. Based on her last scan a month or so ago, all was clear, but he wanted us to be prepared for all the options based on the results though he was very reassuring.

Nancy

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When Dave had carboplatin and VP-16 he had six rounds. No discussion, no scans until they were done. Six rounds. The oncologist did mention that some folks can only tolerate four rounds but since Dave was/is big, healthy and young, and ASKED from the get-go for the oncologist to throw everything at him he had to fight the cancer, he just proclaimed six rounds at the beginning and that's what Dave had.

He's pretty much said the same thing for this time. He's on cisplatin and CPT-11. Six Rounds. Of course, now six rounds is six months and six rounds last year was three months due to a different regime.

Karen

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