Carboplatin AND taxol or JUST Carboplatin 4 recurrence

[dargle]

Hi,
My wife is a stage 3b Ovarian Cancer patient who has had a recurrence. She is in her 3rd year now with this Cancer. Initially she had 10 good months of remission after 5 cycles of carbo/taxol.

Actually this recurrence has been in effect for nearly 1 year now. Topotecan did not work for her, Doxil DID. Seemed to give her stable disease for about 5-6 months or so. We changed Dr's and the new Dr decided to put her on Gemzar. Gemzar has not worked and the mass has gotten much larger. We are now seeing yet another Dr. and he feels my wife may be a very good candidate again for Platinum type chemo according to her history.

My question is does anybody know or have RESEARCH, showing there is an advantage to using Carbo/taxol vs Carbo, alone? Obviuosly we are looking for qulity of life..but we need this chemo to be very effective at this point. Does anyone have any info regarding the use of carbo alone vs carbo/taxol in a recurrence situation?
Thanks in advance!
D

[brthbbs]

Wow--you just hit my nerve about health care in this country.  You're trying to heal your body and the hospital plunks down sugar, salt and fat laden processed foods in front of you.  If you've never read "Sugar Blues" you should find a copy and devour it.  Refined white sugar is a big problem as well as all refined foods.  Some have written on this forum on the value of eating a diet of the most unprocessed foods as possible and feelilng better.  I always have someone bring me food from home when I'm in the hospital as I want to enhance the healing process in all ways.  My rant.

[dargle]

Hi Anne...and everyone..
I agree it's best to maybe post this type of question..where a trained Dr can advise. So I'll post pretty much the same question on the other forum..Thankyou!

I wish everone the best here..and my thoughts and prayers are with you all.

If I may add just one thing..and NO I'm no Dr..I've read a ton of articles stating sugar is no good in regards to Cancer. I myself LOVE chocolate etc...but if I can advise from my research? Try to limit sweets etc. Maybe I'm out of line by saying this..but it AMAZES me the first thing my wife got at the hospital after her surgery was a huge piece of cake at the hospital. I wish the mainstream Dr's would more believe in Integrative medicine..meaning mind, body..and FOOD too. I don't believe it's just all about chemo..in order to heal. Hope I'm not out of line...
D

[turtledovemom]

dargle...
This might be the time for you to check out the other page on medhelp.org.  "Ovarian Cancer Answers Forum".  There is an actual gynecologist/oncologist who answers questions there...she is on staff at Mass General.  I think it can be a very dangerous thing for any of us to dissuage posters from certain treatments.  There are pieces of advice and recommendations that should only come from medical professionals.  My thoughts and prayers are with you and your wife.  Please keep us posted on how she is doing.  
peace,
Anne

[dargle]

Hi,
Thanks everyone for your comments and advise and my best to everyone here!.
As I think I may have written...our new Dr. believes my wife will again respond to platinum drugs as she didn't relapse until 10 months after initial treatment..carbo/platinum. And now, it's nearly 3 years later...so I heard that would be a plus too as far as platinum working again.

On this same subject of being platinum sensitive has any one
heard about Phenoxodiol? It's still in various trial stages but if I read the drug maker's "propaganda" correctly and some things written at Yale, Phenoxodiol may be an answer in the future 4 making women platinum sensitive once agin..and phenoxodiol supposedly kills Ovarain cancer all by itself. Also if it works..supposedly women can use LESS platinum making the drug much easier to take, yet the cancer MORE affected by lower doses of this chemo.
Anyway I'm off subject here.

I was mostly wondering if anybody had seen a study showing in a recurrence situation...if there was any benefit in using carbo AND taxol OR,.... carbo alone.

As I think I also wrote Doxil worked well 4 her..but her Dr. thought we should get off the doxil as it's shown to be toxic to the heart in some cases with prolonged use..hence we switched to Gemzar..and it didn't work for my wife unfortuneatly.
Thanks...
D

[gail47]

Hello, in April 2002 I had stage 1C OC had carbo/taxol, had my first recurrance in April 2005 only had carboplatin. Had another recurrance in April 2006, on Doxil now.  I was happy to only to take the carboplatin with my first recurrance.  It was easy, did not make me sick and I did not get the body aches that comes with taking the taxol.  The taxol was bad for me.  The carboplatin gave me the quality of life that I needed and I was able to keep doing the things that I enjoyed doing.  

Take care and keep beleiving.

[dargle]

Hi Nat2,
Thanks very much for your reply! And that's good info about using the Ovarian Cancer Answers forum as I was hoping a Dr..may have some facts about this question. I wish the best 4 u and I hope you'll be just fine ASAP!
Thanks asgain..
D

[Nat2]

Hi,

I'm on carbo alone for Stage 1 C, to be very honest I don't know very much about the effectiveness of carbo/taxol vs. carbo alone.  My Dr was involved in a study in Germany around this and felt that given my situation carbo was the best option for me.  I'm not sure if this study included treatment of people with recurrence - I'll ask next time i go into clinic (in a couple of weeks) and see if I can get anymore information for you.  You might want to post a comment on the Ovarian Cancer Answers forum that is moderated by a Doctor.  Sorry I can't be of more help.

If you do have anyother q's about the carbo alone option - I'm busy going through it now so happy to help!

Nat2