› Forums › General Melanoma Community › 3rd treatment of Yervoy on Tuesday 2/26/13 ..
- This topic has 9 replies, 3 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 2 months ago by
5374brian.
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- March 2, 2013 at 3:01 am
My wife was diagnosed Dec 7 2012 with stage 4 metastized melanoma. We had our first appt. at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa before the holidays. Scans showed lung , abdomen and brain. The brain had one spot 4mm that Moffitt recommended one treatment radiation which was done in Jan.2013. Also in Jan. they started her on Yervoy. Her side affects have been mostly fatigue. After the first treatment several small spots popped up arm, biceps, back, around her breast and neck. We went back for the 2nd treatment Feb.
My wife was diagnosed Dec 7 2012 with stage 4 metastized melanoma. We had our first appt. at Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa before the holidays. Scans showed lung , abdomen and brain. The brain had one spot 4mm that Moffitt recommended one treatment radiation which was done in Jan.2013. Also in Jan. they started her on Yervoy. Her side affects have been mostly fatigue. After the first treatment several small spots popped up arm, biceps, back, around her breast and neck. We went back for the 2nd treatment Feb. and was told this is ok due to part of the treatment causes inflammation then the yervoy will start fighting. Now we went back this past Tuesday for the 3rd treatment and the larger tumors that were measured before one on her neck and the other on her back had gone down about 1cm each. I guess what i am wondering, is this a typical path for someone on IPI. Maybe nothing is typical. I feel my wife and i were hoping for much greater results by now. She had no primary found. She is 35 years old and has no symptoms of anything wrong until the fatigue that was brought on by the Ipi. Thanks in advance for all your thoughts. i have loved reading the post on this site since we were told about in Jan.
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- March 2, 2013 at 11:37 am
It seems as though your wife has an excellent team of doctors at Moffitt and an excellent treatment plan. Before my brother started Yervoy, his doctor told him that often the tumors get bigger before they start getting smaller. That is because the Yervoy activates the immune system so the T cells surround and attack the tumors. All those activated T cells make the tumor appear bigger.
So based on what you have reported, it sounds as though you and your wife should be very optimistic that the treatment is working. And don't forget, with any of the immune-based treatments, the effect gets stronger with each treatment and continue to work for many months or even years after the treatments end.
This all sounds like great news to me!
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- March 2, 2013 at 11:37 am
It seems as though your wife has an excellent team of doctors at Moffitt and an excellent treatment plan. Before my brother started Yervoy, his doctor told him that often the tumors get bigger before they start getting smaller. That is because the Yervoy activates the immune system so the T cells surround and attack the tumors. All those activated T cells make the tumor appear bigger.
So based on what you have reported, it sounds as though you and your wife should be very optimistic that the treatment is working. And don't forget, with any of the immune-based treatments, the effect gets stronger with each treatment and continue to work for many months or even years after the treatments end.
This all sounds like great news to me!
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- March 2, 2013 at 11:37 am
It seems as though your wife has an excellent team of doctors at Moffitt and an excellent treatment plan. Before my brother started Yervoy, his doctor told him that often the tumors get bigger before they start getting smaller. That is because the Yervoy activates the immune system so the T cells surround and attack the tumors. All those activated T cells make the tumor appear bigger.
So based on what you have reported, it sounds as though you and your wife should be very optimistic that the treatment is working. And don't forget, with any of the immune-based treatments, the effect gets stronger with each treatment and continue to work for many months or even years after the treatments end.
This all sounds like great news to me!
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- March 3, 2013 at 2:35 am
Glad your wife is showing a early response to Ipi. Sometimes it can take up to a year to start showing a response. Yes, the initial apperant growth is common. They are looking at redoing the Criteria for Response from what had been the historic criteria since IPI responses are both different by often expanding tumors before reduction and often taking longer to show even that response.
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- March 4, 2013 at 2:07 am
thanks for the input. It gets difficult sometimes when reading all the posts if we should be asking about other treatments while we are on the IPI treatment. We try to read posts by everyone on hear and make notes but that too can add to the unknown and uncertainty. Glad to hear that we are heading in the right direction..
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- March 4, 2013 at 2:07 am
thanks for the input. It gets difficult sometimes when reading all the posts if we should be asking about other treatments while we are on the IPI treatment. We try to read posts by everyone on hear and make notes but that too can add to the unknown and uncertainty. Glad to hear that we are heading in the right direction..
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- March 4, 2013 at 2:07 am
thanks for the input. It gets difficult sometimes when reading all the posts if we should be asking about other treatments while we are on the IPI treatment. We try to read posts by everyone on hear and make notes but that too can add to the unknown and uncertainty. Glad to hear that we are heading in the right direction..
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- March 3, 2013 at 2:35 am
Glad your wife is showing a early response to Ipi. Sometimes it can take up to a year to start showing a response. Yes, the initial apperant growth is common. They are looking at redoing the Criteria for Response from what had been the historic criteria since IPI responses are both different by often expanding tumors before reduction and often taking longer to show even that response.
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- March 3, 2013 at 2:35 am
Glad your wife is showing a early response to Ipi. Sometimes it can take up to a year to start showing a response. Yes, the initial apperant growth is common. They are looking at redoing the Criteria for Response from what had been the historic criteria since IPI responses are both different by often expanding tumors before reduction and often taking longer to show even that response.
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