mother-in-law recurrance of ovarian cancer

[saem]

My mother-in-law has been fighting ovarian cancer for 3 years now. She had only 135 CA-125 when diagnosed but was considered stage 3 because there were small tumors on the lining of her colon, but no cancer found in the lymph nodes and so far even after 3 reoccurances still none have been found in the lymph nodes. She took taxol/carboplatin the first 2 rounds. The first time it was gone for 10 months, the second for 6 months and this time it was only gone for 3 months. She is just had her 10th treatment of taxere/carboplatin and is looking at least 2 more treatments, maybe more if CAT scan shows the tumors are still present. These tumors are located on the lining of her colon. Her last CAT scan showed one tumor had shrunk, one had grown, and one had not changed. Her onc said that her cancer had stabalized. Can someone please explain to me what that means exactly? Also, any advice for meds that she might be able to take? One more question, does anyone think that she is resistant to the chemo since this is her third bout with this and after the recommended six treatments, the taxere/carbo did not vanish the tumors? Thank you for taking the time to read this and offering your advice.

    

[ticked]

I am sure someone will come along shortly in regards to your question.  Please be patient.  

[nyc lady]

The CA125 numbers have no relationship to the stage of cancer.  There are many women that have "normal" CA125's with advanced staged OvCa and others with false positive numbers.

I am no expert on chemo, but it seems to me that if she recurred after only 3 months then she might be platinum resistant.

Have the doctors discussed any other treatment options with you?

Unfortunately, there are many people on this forum that have alot of knowledge in recurrences and 2nd, 3rd, etc line of treatment.  Some of them will be along shortly.

Hoping they find the right chemo this time around.

[freshair]

Stabalized means that it is not growing and showing up elsewhere. It's not getting out of hand so that's GOOD the chemo is working. Are her CA125 numbers coming down? The number itself doesn't matter but the fact that the number is coming down. Other chemo drugs are doxil, topotecan, gemzar and in this website people are doing avastan. There are trials with that.

I'm so sorry to hear all this. I'm going through it. This is what this dreaded disease is all about. You become resistant to chemos. We all want a long remission. After surgery, everything is basically taken out tumor wise. Then it starts growing. Well when new tumors form its harder for the chemo to "get it all". On the initial chemo treatment the cancer is killed off (it's microscopic so it's easier). The more tumor load the more difficult it is for the chemos to perform. That is why she is on more treatments than the standard "6" initially. There are a lot of chemos out there. It is almost a guessing game on which one to do because some work with some women and don't with others. Then if it doesn't work, you're off to another type of chemo. You can go into the archives of this website and read about women's chemos. There are some that have worked remarkably well. It's all about finding "your match."

It's very unfair. You would think by now they would have chemo sensitivity tests out there for everyone. With the expense of chemo it is very unfair but most of all unfair for us where time is of the essence.


I wish I could help you more.  
Helen  

[saem]

In regards to the question about her CA-125 results, during the initial 6 treatments, she had a steady decline in her CA-125, then it began to rise. It was 10.6, then rose to 12.9, and now it is 15.6.  I know those numbers are low, but it is the rise in them that worries me.  Can you give me your opinion on what this may mean for her.  Thank you for replying to my questions and taking the time to read this.  I appreciate it and my mother-in-law appreciates all the information anyone can give us.  Thank you!

[freshair]

Sorry to hear the numbers are going up. I would say if they are going up while she is on carbo/taxol, maybe she is becoming resistant to it. What is her oncologist saying? It doesn't make sense to do the same drug when counts go up but maybe if they go above 35 the drug is switched. Wish I could help more. You could post the question to the doctor on this site.