Long-term chemo effects

[Resoguy]

Hi, everyone. I'm an old member returning after a long absence. Was treated for malignant thymoma in 2004/2005 with surgery, cisplatin, adriamycin, and cytoxan and 25 radiation treatments.  Am so blessed to be cancer-free so far, but I'm now needing to better understand the potential impact of the chemo on my life now and in the future.  I've been searching for info, and you can imagine the overwhelming number of hits I get from Google or even within sites such as mdanderson.org--so, can anyone out there, by chance, please point me to some good information on the potential long-term side effects of cisplatin, adriamycin (a.ka. "the red devil") and cytoxan?

Blessings to you all.

[Resoguy]

Thank you for your reply and the link to this important information, Dr. Roque.  -- Steve

[Fernando Roque, MD]

Hi.  There's an excellent article by Strumberg, et al (2001) detailing the long term toxicities of cisplatin and doxorubicin based chemotherapy combinations (web link: http://annonc.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/13/2/229.pdf).  Even if the subjects studied were testicular cancer survivors, I think a lot of the information can be applicable to any patient who has been given both drugs.  I hope this helps.