Carboplatin Gemzar(Gemcitabine)

[vfc]

For those of you who have underwent such treatment I would like to know after how many cycles did you start to see a drop on the CA125 or symptoms relief?

[Jatoo]

Hello again. Many ladies in this forum have undergone this treatment and pretty soon will tell you their experiences with this combo.

When you were on Avastin, did you feel any concern for the perforation side effect? How long were you really on Avastin?
My wife will have her second treatment tomorrow and she may just use Avastin and possibly Gemzar next week depending on the results of her CA 125. If Avastin will take care of her tumor then we will just use Gemzar in the future.

There has been a study on Avastin alone, but not on the combo with Gemzar. So we really do not know what to expect. Although the result of her first treatment (one dose) was rather fantastic.

I admire your stuggle with this disease. I pray that this new treatment will work on you.

Thanks
Jatoo

[vfc]

Dear Jatoo,

Thank you very much for your kind words.

As a matter of fact my main problem has been bowel obstructions. Other than that, and despite so many chemo treatments, fortunately, I am still feeling strong. That's one of the reasons I think I might have an adhesion problem which combined with a slight increase in cancer progression (over the peritoneum), immediately causes me (partial or total) bowel obstructions.

As for the Avastin, I did four cycles, once every two weeks in combination with daily Endoxan. I think the perforation side effect is primarily dosage related and also there's an increased risk when large mass tumors attached to the intestines are present.

As far as I understand, gemcitabine is a DNA repair inhibitor. Therefore, it would benefit from and potentiate a DNA destroying agent, such as an alkylating agent. This combination is well known for being very synergic. It might not work with everyone, though. Adding Avastin can only potentiate it even further, because Avastin is very good in destroying tumor blood vessels. I know that some of this is theoretical but chances are that it really works, I don't know of any reason not to.

So, I would go even farther to say that the optimum combination would be [Avastin + Gemzar + (slow acting and well tolerated)Alkylating agent] to bring the disease under control.

Then, I would just use [Avastin + (slow acting and well tolerated)Alkylating agent] in the future due to Gemzar's toxicity.