Having trouble with Gemzar

[Crickie]

I have posted questions here before ... I am supposed to be having three consecutive weeks of treatment with one week off ...so far I haven't been able to have two consecutive weeks as my blood counts (especially white) go dangerously low so I'm having treatment every two weeks.

My questions:
Is this going to be effective -having treatment every two weeks?

My doctor also says that my cancer is now inoperable and not curable and wants to focus on my 'quality of life' and not aggressive treatment. That has left me feeling down and not wanting to fight anymore.

Is ovarian cancer ever beaten other than if found at an early stage?

So far I've had taxol/carboplatin. weekly taxol, caelyx and radiation -what else is there other than Gemzar?

Thanks

[Annekathryn Goodman, M.D.]

Dear Crickie,

Gemzar can be very hard on some people's blood counts. Your experience is not unusual especially in the setting of having had previous chemo and radiation.

An approach that has been tried with some success is to give a very low dose on a weekly basis. Another approach is to use Gemzar on a 2 weeks on and one week off schedule.

This schedule can be effective.

It must be really hard to have been told that chemotherapy will not cure your cancer. I can only guess at how rough that must be. Who are your supports? What is it that gives you meaning every day?

Ovarian cancer has all different behaviors. For women who have experienced a recurrence, we do not currently know how to cure it. we use chemotherapy as a way to control it. In some people, they can live with their cancer for a long while

best wishes to you

[ehr]

I was researching Gemzar and learned that if you are not getting results that you were hoping for, a possibility would be to add hydroxyurea which is a pill taken the night before treatment, the morning after and a third during the treatment. It has minimal side effects and could help boost the impact that Gemzar has on the CA125

[ainegeu]

I was dg as OC III C on april 2003, total hysterectomy, chemo carbo-cyclophosphamide, second line an year later carbo-taxol, third line gemzar, last year. Gemzar was not good for me, I couldn't finish my third line. Now after ten month I have new troubles, a diarrheea that could not be stopped from five weeks. If somebody can help me I will be so much obbliged.....

Ain