the topecan treatment

How many sessions of the topecan treatment are needed?

Caelyx was not longer working for my mom (66 years old) so, doctors have put her on topecan. She just had her first quemo. with topecan and she is been told that she will need at least 3 more sessions with topecan.

Any information?

[gah_70]

Treatment is different for different people.  I had Topotecan 5 days a week, then was off for 2 weeks.  I had a total of 3 weeks' worth of treatment before we realized unfortunately it was not working for me.  But everyone is different, and there are people for whom it works wonderfully.  Does your mom have a CA125 blood test?  Usually, doctors will use that to determine how well the chemo is working. It may take 3 treatments, or it may take more.  It will depend on how well your mom responds.  Best wishes to you both, and here's hoping it works wonderfully for her!

Gail  

[Helmar]

Hello... like Gail, in the previous post, I had the same dosage.. and it didn't work for me either, but my Oncol's theory is that Topotecan splits the cells thus making another chemo ( he gave me Taxotere/Carboplatin) 'mop up' those cells and so my CA.125 came tumbling down from the 1000s to the 100s, so I was pleased with that. Like most of us, it's trial and error, as we seem to go through trying many chemos, before finding one that will work. Wishing your Mum all the best, and hope she will find the one that will work for her soon....hugs...Helen...

[bestmommex]

Thanks. She have had several CA 125 blood test,  the last 3 have been going up is when her Oncol's changed her to Topotecan. I just hope her CA 125 start to drop!!

thanks

[freshair]

She'll need these 3 more sessions to see if Topotecan is helping. Then if it is she will be on it till her CA125 comes down to normal or her cat scan looks good. Sometimes a drug will keep it stable-meaning no more new growth.  

I wish the best for your Mom-Helen

And that Doxil--sometimes it starts working after 4 chemos. I often wonder whether my oncologist took me off of it too soon.