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Chemo Regime for Ovarian Cancer

My aunt was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She has a THBSO done. Her follw-up with the oncologist, had told her that she needed a chemotherapy. As there were medical jargons used during the conversation between my aunt amd the doctor, she hardly understand the total chemo treatment plan.
The doctor mentioned about a Chemo regime with Carboplatin; a platinum-based chemo based on 6 cycles. He did also mention about maintenance therapy too.
May I check:
1) What is a platinum based chemo? Is there other types of non-platinum based chemo? What is the difference and what is the factor that the oncologist decides on what type of chemo?
2) What is the difference about chemo regime (same drug?), cycles and maintenance cycles? Are they the same?
3) How come I heard from a friend that she had cisplatin throughout the treatment. But in between some treatments, she had other type of IVs?  
Thank you. As she visits the doctors alone, I am afraid the fear in her will snowball due to the lack of comprehending all these oncology jargons.
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Avatar universal
I had the intraperitoneal hyperthermic chemotherapy with Mitomyacin C. I had this at the same time I had my Ovarian Cancer Staging. It is where they run heated chemo drug which is 10 times the strength of regular chemo direclty in my abdomen for at least two hours. There was also quite a bit left in my peritoneal cavity.

Anyone else had this or the Mytomyacin C?  Or the IHPC?  My tumor was mucinous which does not respond well to carboplatin, Taxol, the normal ovarian cancer drugs. There are quite a few doctors, however, that will continue to use these drugs on this type of epithileal cancer. There is new research out there that this is not productive with mucinous ovarian cancer.

Hoping to find someone who was diagnosed with a Mucinous form of Ovarian Cancer. Only 15% of Ovarian Cancers are mucinous.

Anyone else out there?
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Avatar universal
Wow another plus for the NHS (national health service) I'm recieved goverment funded Carboplatin.
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Sorry, I was stage 3, that's why I had both carbo and taxol.
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Avatar universal
Hi,

At what stage was your Aunt diagnosed?  I was diagnosed Stage 1C and am currenlty undergoing 6 cycles of Carboplatin alone.  

You can find more information on Carboplatin at:

http://www.cancerbackup.org.uk/Treatments/Chemotherapy/Individualdrugs/Carboplatin

Carboplatin is a very tolerable chemo - and one of the plus sides is that you don't loose your hair, although it thins (I have not experienced this yet but still on my first cycle) and in very rare cases people have lost their hair.

I'm not sure about the maintenance treatment - could you find out and post.  I have not been advised on any maintenance but will have check ups every three months to monitor my CA-125 levels (a cancer marker) and possible transvaginal ultrasounds too.

Most women have with Ovarian cancer are given Carbo along with Taxol - this has many more side effects and is a lot harder to tolerate.  I think it depends on your stage and your age as to what treatment they give you.  I know that the taxol / carbo together has not proved that much more effective - although it does have higher success rates - I can find out more on this in a couple of weeks when I next see my Onc as she was involved in some trials in Germany.
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Avatar universal
When I went through treatment the understanding that I got from my doctors was that 6 cycles of carboplatin and taxol was the standard for ovarian cancer. Of course everyone's situation is different. I know of some women who also had radiation along with the chemo. I had 7 cycles because my oncologist felt I handled the treatments pretty well. When we talked about maintenance chemo he told me the dose of carbo and taxol would be the same and that studies have shown it doesn't totally prevent a reoccurence from happening if it's going to happen. Only by  a few months. So I didn't do the maintenance. Once again, everyone's situation is different. Hope I helped a little.
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135691 tn?1271097123
I agree with all the other replies. I also had 6 cycles of Taxol/Carbo and it was explained to me that the reason I did not have Cisplatin was because I had some complications with my kidney following surgery. I'm from Canada, and I was told that Cisplatin would cost the government $75/treatment whereas Carboplatin would cost $300/treatment - that's why the standard treatment here is Taxol and cisplatin. I have no idea what makes someone a good candidate for maintenance chemo - my only guess would be if maybe their CA125 wasn't responding as well as a Dr would like or if there was substantial spread of the tumors. I hope this answers some of your questions - we are all here to help.
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Avatar universal
Also I believe that the maintence is taxol not carbo, at least mine was.....
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Avatar universal
We all seem to get pretty much the same treatment: Carboplatium
is the most used along with Taxol (yew tree bark- now synthetic). Cisplatinum is also like carbo but my Dr. says the side effects can be worse and it is harder on the kidneys. When I kept having a reaction to the Carbo he mentioned switching to Cisplat.. kidney thing scared me. We upped other meds and slowed the infusion way down. I had 9 carbo/taxol then 12 maintence. You have a choice I believe about the maintence, if you want to do it or not.
You will have time to figure out later if she wants to do this or not.
I do not know your Aunts case but usually they prescribe at least 6 initial treatments.
There has been talk that Carbo is just as effective without the Taxol. There are a few women on here only receiving Carbo. So I guess that it is her Drs. call.  Good Luck
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