Weekly Taxol

[Barney22]

Having had lots of chemo over the last 3 years I have now had the suggestion of weekly taxol.  Has anyone had this successfully at a late stage?  ie holding back or reducing the CA125.  Thanks Jenny

[Jatoo]

Yes she is. She does not follow the actual protocol, but take both drugs together every other week. The side effect is the lowering of the counts which is true for almost every chemo except Avastin. But they are taken cared by Neupogen and Procrit shots. The actual study shows a 79% positive response rate which is excellent for OvCA.

Thanks for your greetings. A blessed holidays to you and your family too.

[Kimchi]

Glad to hear from you and the good news about Melody's low CA125 count...Presume she is on Oxaliplatin with 5FU...how are the side effects (if any)...Hope you are well ,,,,Happy Holidays to you both

[Jatoo]

Based on a previous study, weekly Taxol removes the resistance of the tumors to Platinum drugs. Another excellent option to choose is Oxaliplatin plus 5FU . It is relatively an easy chemo and have produced remissions for heavily pretreated and Platinum resistant patients. It reduced CA 125 of my wife from like 300 to now 45 after less than 2 cycles.

Here's the link to that study:http://www.asco.org/portal/site/ASCO/menuitem.34d60f5624ba07fd506fe310ee37a01d/?vgnextoid=76f8201eb61a7010VgnVCM100000ed730ad1RCRD&vmview=abst_detail_view&confID=47&abstractID=34542

[annie]

Hi  Jenny,

I finished my initial carbo/taxol the end of Oct 06.  In Feb 07 I had topotecan/thalidomide which didn't seem to do much for me.  I was switched to Doxil and then started to have bloating and coughing.  After having my belly drained 4 or 5 times and my lungs done at least 3 times, I was put in the hosptal for a week and had interferon in my abdomen and also a procedure on my lung where they put a talc of some sort between my lung and the cavity surrounding it.  Gemzar was started as soon as I got out of the hospital.  Once a week for 3 weeks and then a week off.  My CA125 went down from 8,800 something to 320 after doing 5 of the 3 week chemos and then that stopped working.  I had to a bit of talking to convince them that something was going on.  Was then changed to Cytoxin/ Avastin for 2 cycles and had my first Taxol today.  How can these cancer cells be so smart that they dvelope a resistance to these drugs?
  My CT scan from last week shows that my major organs do show anything but I have an ilius in my intestines that is partially obstructing the functioning of my intestional track.  

My next option after Taxol is a research study at the U that works on tumors that are estrogen receptive or some such thing as that.  It has been a long battle but I am willing to continue and hope that the Taxol continues for quite some time.  My kids are 28 and 24 and I think they are still too young to be without a mother.

They told me today that I should not lose my hair  as soon with the lower dose of taxol.  Hope that is true!  

Let me know how you are doing.
annie

[Barney22]

I went to the clinic today and saw the consultant oncologist.  He suggested waiting until the New Year so I can have my lungs checked again - I've now had 2 pleural effusions (both lungs), the 2nd fairly recent and climbing stairs is hard work!  I've also got a bloody vaginal discharge which they want to do an MRI on.  Despite all this my last week's CT scan didn't show a great increase in disease at all but my CA125 is way up now.  When I was on Taxol before (with carbo at the beginning) I found it very exhausting and difficult so am hoping a weekly infusion will be easier - my onc isn't convinced weekly is any better but will go along with it if I really want it.  I've essentially run out of other chemos I could have which are felt to work well and my immune system has taken quite a bashing.  I can certainly see that being bald in Minnesota in winter isn't to be wished for.  The only recompense is that wigs are warmer!  This will be my 4th loss of hair - I''m getting my money's worth out of my second one.  Thanks for your encouragement and good luck Annie for Wednesday.   Jenny

[Kimchi]

Is the weekly Taxol due to reaction to Carbo? is this for recurrence or maintenance or where you on some other meds that stopped working?

[annie]

I am also atarting weekly Taxol on Wednesday.  This will be my 5th type of chemo in a year and a half.  Not loking forward to losing my hair again.  Bald heads and Minnesota winters aren't very compatable.  I hope this works for both of us.  Good luck.!!!

Annie

[freshair]

Jenny,
I was on low dose taxol the beginning of this year and it worked for me for about 4 months. It was such an easy drug to be on and I have done lots of chemo also. It brought my numbers down some and then kept it stable. My numbers stayed around the same and a little lower. Then I became resistant.

Wishing you much luck with this. It was easy and I wish I could do it again. Then there's Taxotere also.

I am on Cytoxan now and will know if it is working in a few weeks. I have a feeling it is not.

Take care,
Helen

[EchoUK]

No-one seems to have come up with any answers for you yet so wondered if these may help-

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?db=pubmed&uid=9346225&cmd=showdetailview&indexed=google

http://www.asco.org/portal/site/ASCO/menuitem.34d60f5624ba07fd506fe310ee37a01d/?vgnextoid=76f8201eb61a7010VgnVCM100000ed730ad1RCRD&vmview=abst_detail_view&confID=23&abstractID=103189

Hope you are going on OK,

Hugs,

Ruth xx