Pain and discomfort from ovarian cancer recurrence

[mahen59]

My wife - diagnosed with ovarian cancer stage IIIC four yrs ago -has had recurrence since July 2005.  Chemo drugs, taxol (6 cycles) & gemzar (3 cycles) has not really helped her much.  According to latest CT scan done about a week ago, there's a mass around upper part of liver and perihepatic fluid collection is compressing the right kidney which is displaced horizontally. The left kidney, both lungs, spleen and pancreas are clear.  No trace of fluid in the abdomen. The scan report ends with the note "disease progression noted". What exactly is the meaning of this? Blood test result for CA125 is currently awaited (to be known in 2 days). I feel very sad to see my wife go thru' pain and discomfort. She has lost weight, has poor appetite and looks pale and very weak.  She had 2 or 3 sessions of blood transfusion and 2 rounds of tapping to drain the fluid over the last 2 months. The oncologist treating her does'nt seem optimistic and wants to discontinue chemo, esp if CA125 shows constant or an increase. My wife and I are distressed. Are there any new clinical trials that she can opt for and how reliable are these trials?  What are the chances? What else is there besides chemotherapy?  Plse advise.  Thank you.

[mahen59]

My wife kept her appointment with her Oncologist on 4 August.  He said her CA125 reading has come down slightly only, i.e. from 900+ to about 700+.  The oncologist felt that she did'nt respond well - may be bcos she was unable to take the full dosage of Gemzar as her FBC dropped quite badly after every cycle and so she had to miss the 2nd dose on the 8th day.  The drop in her blood count could have been due to Gemzar given with carboplatin.  So he has advised to continue with Gemzar w/out carbo - another 3 cycles? - and then evaluate her again.  The doctor was also of the opinion that my wife is not fit for the peritoneal chemo procedure as she is too fragile and that drugs such as Doxil may be too powerful and aggressive on her already weakened immune system.  

Also thanks for the info on chemosensitivity testing.  I shall check it out.

[Lil AJ]

Have you considered chemosensitivity testing?  The more I've been reading, the more this seems extremely worthwhile.

[mahen59]

Danielle, thank you very much for that info.  Yes, I read about intraperitoneal chemo procedure and spoke to the oncologist about it a couple of months ago. He was not that supportive. I will have to talk to him about it again when I see him tomorrow with my wife. Thank you.

[mahen59]

I sincerely convey my heartfelt appeciation to all of you who have responded to my request for help and advice.  My wife has an appointment to see her Oncologist tomorrow for further review. I shall discuss with the doctor about Doxil.  With regard to the suggestion about platinum based chemo drug, my wife had already gone thru' a 6-cycles course of carboplatin and a subsequent course of cisplatin chemo drugs when she was first diagnosed in early 2002. Thank you, again, to all and please keep me posted with any more guidance/advice that may be of help.

[Jatoo]

Follow what Sue is saying. There are many options. In one year's time we may just yet find a permanent cure (read OVAREX-MAB and Mullerian under googles). Please read also my wife's story inder SUEG 8/01/06. You are very fortunate that your wife's reccurred after four(4) YEARS. My wife and Sue recurred only after three(3) short months. We need a break from Chemo-a year would be a blessing. My wife had her liver surrounded by dangerous mass when her's recurred and a lot of ascites. The first dose of Doxil removed those ascites and brought down CA 125 from 300 to 37. The second dose shrank the tumor from 3 X 3 CM to 0.8 to 1 and CA 125 to normal at around 10. Th 4th dose further shrank it to almost nothing unmeasurable, "a thin film of soft tissue" as per pathologist report with normal CA125. There is also an herb (of course not FDA approved coming from China and I think also studied by the University of Peking and I heard a  Chinese scientist spoke about the herb here personally in Los Angeles) which I know may have help someone shrank her cancer. I am not about to do any marketing for this here since it is very expensive, although when I checked it out on the web it helped a lot of cancer patients in very desperate situation. So don't lose hope. Ask for a lot of prayers which I already did for you.

[ddemaso]

Ask your gyn oncologist if intraperitoneal Hyperthermic chemotherapy could be an option for you. This is a surgical procedure. You may also want to ask about intraperitoneal chemotherapy. This is a non-surgical procedure in which they use a port to put the chemo directly into her peritoneal cavity.

These are two new procedures that have shown great promise in late stage treatment for ovarian cancer as well as other cancers of the peritoneal cavity such as colon cancer which can spread to this area.

My ob-gyn dr. Jay W. Carlson in Grand Rapids Michigan performed the inraperitoneal hyperthermic chemotherapy on me and Wake Forest University is also practicing using this procedure. If you go to their web site it actaully has a video of the procedure on a colon cancer patient that was in late stages of the disease and it had spread to the abdomen area.

Good luck to you and your wife. I am so sorry for what you are going through. You are a being wonderful husband. My husband was incredibly supportive of me as well. I can't imagine going through it twice. I am sorry you and your wife are.

Sincerely,
Danielle DeMaso

[sueg]

Hi there,
don't give up,stay strong for her.The doctor on the ovarian cancer forum here,has listed these for another patient:

Hormonal agents
-tamoxifen
-arimidex (anastrozole)
-megace (Megestrol acetate)


Oral chemotherapy
-cyclophosphamide
-hexamethylmelamine

Intravenous chemotherapy
doxil
-topotecan
-weekly taxol
weekly carboplatin
-weekly cisplatin

Hope this helps
Sue.

[VaNative47]

I'm very sorry to hear of your wife's situation. have you talked w/the doc about platinum based chemo? there are clinical trials out there: Moffet in Tampa,FL, Mayo, Johns Hopkins. check the websites. we will hold you both in our prayers.

[Rebel Spirit]

I'm so very sorry to hear your wife is going through this. You might check with the Cancer Treatment Centers of America to see if they have anything else that might help. Some other hospitals at the forefront of cancer treatment are MD Anderson in Houston, TX and Johns Hopkins. I will remember your wife in my prayers.