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Treatment choices limited after four 1/2 years of treatment for Stage 3C

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Ladydi
Ladydi
in Encouragement and Support
I am faced with a decision next week to go on either Etoposide oral or Cisplatin IVq3weeks, or Stopping treatment entirely.
has anyone had any experience with these two treatment for EOC? I am BRCA negative.

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  • Tinazzie
    Tinazzie
    Options
    Hello @Ladydi, I do not have experience with either of the treatment options you mentioned.  But I hope that you did get some more information to help you with your decision making.  How are you doing now?  If you can, you could check out the Teal Thursday chats on Thursday afternoons - where a lot of our Teal sisters get together to share information and support each other. https://ovdialogue.ovariancanada.org/discussion/389/teal-thursdays-sign-in-and-click-here-to-enter-live-daytime-online-chat-1pm-est/p68  
  • Ladydi
    Ladydi
    Options
    Thank you My oncologist answered all my questions and I have decided to try two treatments of CISplatin 3 weeks apart. An older chemo drug used for others cancers as well and it has less than 20% effective rate. If it is not working or I cannot handle the side effects  I will stop chemo treatments. I will explore two or three alternative treatments.
    There are no phase 3 clinical trials available at this time.
    thank you for your reply.
    Diana EOC Stage 3
  • Fearless_Moderator
    Fearless_Moderator Moderator
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    @Ladydi

    I am so sorry. I was certain I had responded to your original posts but can't find any evidence my comments ever sent.  That said, I am glad to hear your oncologist as able to address your concerns and questions and you have a plan moving forward.

    It is good that you are able to still advantage yourself of a platinum based chemo drug.  By now most would have become platinum resistant.  I too have been managing 3C into my fifth year and just completed an 8 cycle course of chemo to treat my third recurrence.  My second was treated within the context of a clinical trial. This time we reverted back to my original chemo mix of Carboplatin with a Gemcitabine chaser...however at cycle 5 I started showing signs of signficant reaction to the Carbo so I was switched to Cis.  Cisplatin was the  original platinum based chemo, eventually replaced as the go-to first choice by Carboplatin because of the lesser side effects.  Neither drug is less effective than the other...and as for the statistics, please remember they are just averages. Some of us continue to have significant positive response to both Carbo and Cis longer term and hopefully that will be the case for you.

    I can attest to Cis having stronger side effects than what I had been used to in past. For me, that was managed with pre-medications to desensitize me to the infusion, with a wind down of meds over the next few days to mitigate the side effects post infusion.  So my first Cisplatin went well at infusion but not so much for side effects. It took another cycle to get the meds balanced enough to limit any discomfort. 

    I'm not at all familiar with the other drug (oral) that had been offered you, or does it seem anyone else is familiar with it.  So unable to comment if that becomes an option again.   However, if it does, I suggest you reach out to your local Regional Director at OCC.  She may have some information on the subject or, at the least, has access to their team of medical experts for advice to share.   Finally, there may be no applicable trials today but that doesn't mean there won't be "tomorrow".  Research is escalating, new trials are being introduced every day.  I use this time back on chemo just to give me a placeholder until something better surfaces.  Right now, having completed the cycles to address this latest recurrence I'm now on hiatus from treatment for at least 3 months and if that scan shows no remarkable growth then longer.  Who knows what options may be available by the time I recur again.

    Good luck with your treatments. Please let us know how things go and if there is anything we can do to support you moving forward.  You will be in our thoughts..... <3

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