Dr. Roque,
Thank you for replying to my post. My brother began his treatment on Nexavar and was seemed to be tolerating it well. On the ninth day he become began vomiting blood. He was taken to the hospital and bleeding was stopped, and, sadly, he passed away 36 hours later.
The doctor explained that the nausea from the Nexavar caused vomiting, which caused ruptured varices, which caused him to lose a great amount of blood. By the time we was given more blood, his liver was no longer processing it properly and as soon as it when it, it came out in his NG tube.
It was very unexpected. We and, I'm sure, he, thought he had more time. He is gone from us here but always in our hearts.
Hi. I'm very sorry to hear about your brother's condition. Nexavar (Sorafenib) can help delay the progression and spread of the cancer (from 2.8 months without treatment to 5.5 months with Nexavar) for patients with advanced liver cancer. This drug can also prolong survival by about 3 months (10.7 months median overall survival vs. 7.9 months if no treatment is given). There is a new study by Abou-Alfa (2007) combining the chemotherapy drug Doxorubicin with Sorafenib, with even more promising results (13.7 months overall survival with the drug combination), but these data still need to be confirmed in larger clinical trials.
I do hope the Nexavar works with your brother. At least it's going to buy him a little more time which he can use to be with friends and family.