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Has anyone had Sucessful treatment with Chemo?

Forums General Melanoma Community Has anyone had Sucessful treatment with Chemo?

  • Post
    ncdaniel
    Participant

      My wife is currently undergoing chemo with three different chemo drugs and I was wondering if anyone has had any success with them  or reduction in tumor size.?  She is getting  Vinblastine (Velban) , Cisplaatin, and TEmozlomide (temodar). She has already gone through many of the treatments, IL-2 , Yervoy ( developed severe colitis after 1 treatment) Gamma knife and WBR. She was rejected for BMS PD-1 trial due to yervoy side effects and at NIH for TIL implant when more tumors were found in small intestine and a new brain spot. She currently has tumors on both lungs adrenal gland, small intestine, Back and one spot on the brain again. Still fighting and going for radiation on one lung tumor and back this week since the lung tumor is restricting her airway. Just wondering if anyone has had this chemo with any help or success. Any words of wisdom for other treatment would be appericated.

    Viewing 11 reply threads
    • Replies
        JoshF
        Participant

          I have no experience but I'm praying this is the the right treatment for your wife. Keep fighting and keep the faith!!!!

           

          Josh

          JoshF
          Participant

            I have no experience but I'm praying this is the the right treatment for your wife. Keep fighting and keep the faith!!!!

             

            Josh

            JoshF
            Participant

              I have no experience but I'm praying this is the the right treatment for your wife. Keep fighting and keep the faith!!!!

               

              Josh

              Ali
              Participant

                I have done Temodar in combination with Yervoy.  I had a great response.  I also had colitis after 1 treatment of Yervoy (I had just finished IL-2).  That was June 2012.  I got on a trial at Moffitt where they are studying PD-1 on patients who had dose limiting toxicities to Yervoy.  Contact Dr. Weber for more information if you are interested in pursuing that drug.  It did help me, for sure.  But I have problem with some tumors in my kidney, and I am trying Yervoy again right now.  It has almost been 2 weeks and no colitis!  I know it can come anytime (the one dose I had it was 5 days), but I'm pretty surprised by it all.  Just curious, did the Yervoy help her?

                Best of luck!

                  ncdaniel
                  Participant

                    Your information is very interesting. Can you tell me  if the PD-1 is BMS or Merek?

                    please let me know how the Yervoy goes. Have you had any brain mets?  As to  her she only had one dose  and really did not see any effect but hard to verify. One comment about her yervoy experience was that she did the yervoy in the town where we lived at the time and they were new to Yervoy. Her Melanoma oncologist at the U of M thought it okay to do there with his direction, so we decided to do it there with a general oncologist who was goin to work with our U of M oncologist in doing this. First dose my wife developed colitis and while we thought we were in the care of our  U of M oncologist it was only after my  wife got extremely sick we found out he had never been contacted and the general oncologist was guessing on treating her.  It took two treatments of Remmicade to get her colitis under control.  Bottom line we moved to be closer to the U of M so my wife was being treated only by a melanoma specialist in a melanoma clinic.

                    Ali
                    Participant

                      I beleive it is BMS.  I wonder if the remmicade would disqualify her for the trial at Moffit, I'm not sure.  Mine was resolved with prednisone (although we waited on the prednisone a little too long because I was seen by an acute care clinic instead of my melanoma oncologist, so I kind of see where you are coming from there).  I have had 25 brain mets, they were small and that is when we did the Yervoy and Temodar.  The Yervoy I only had one dose or, and the Temodar I took for 5 months.  Alll brain mets were resolved with that combo. 

                      Ali
                      Participant

                        I beleive it is BMS.  I wonder if the remmicade would disqualify her for the trial at Moffit, I'm not sure.  Mine was resolved with prednisone (although we waited on the prednisone a little too long because I was seen by an acute care clinic instead of my melanoma oncologist, so I kind of see where you are coming from there).  I have had 25 brain mets, they were small and that is when we did the Yervoy and Temodar.  The Yervoy I only had one dose or, and the Temodar I took for 5 months.  Alll brain mets were resolved with that combo. 

                        Ali
                        Participant

                          I beleive it is BMS.  I wonder if the remmicade would disqualify her for the trial at Moffit, I'm not sure.  Mine was resolved with prednisone (although we waited on the prednisone a little too long because I was seen by an acute care clinic instead of my melanoma oncologist, so I kind of see where you are coming from there).  I have had 25 brain mets, they were small and that is when we did the Yervoy and Temodar.  The Yervoy I only had one dose or, and the Temodar I took for 5 months.  Alll brain mets were resolved with that combo. 

                          ncdaniel
                          Participant

                            Your information is very interesting. Can you tell me  if the PD-1 is BMS or Merek?

                            please let me know how the Yervoy goes. Have you had any brain mets?  As to  her she only had one dose  and really did not see any effect but hard to verify. One comment about her yervoy experience was that she did the yervoy in the town where we lived at the time and they were new to Yervoy. Her Melanoma oncologist at the U of M thought it okay to do there with his direction, so we decided to do it there with a general oncologist who was goin to work with our U of M oncologist in doing this. First dose my wife developed colitis and while we thought we were in the care of our  U of M oncologist it was only after my  wife got extremely sick we found out he had never been contacted and the general oncologist was guessing on treating her.  It took two treatments of Remmicade to get her colitis under control.  Bottom line we moved to be closer to the U of M so my wife was being treated only by a melanoma specialist in a melanoma clinic.

                            ncdaniel
                            Participant

                              Your information is very interesting. Can you tell me  if the PD-1 is BMS or Merek?

                              please let me know how the Yervoy goes. Have you had any brain mets?  As to  her she only had one dose  and really did not see any effect but hard to verify. One comment about her yervoy experience was that she did the yervoy in the town where we lived at the time and they were new to Yervoy. Her Melanoma oncologist at the U of M thought it okay to do there with his direction, so we decided to do it there with a general oncologist who was goin to work with our U of M oncologist in doing this. First dose my wife developed colitis and while we thought we were in the care of our  U of M oncologist it was only after my  wife got extremely sick we found out he had never been contacted and the general oncologist was guessing on treating her.  It took two treatments of Remmicade to get her colitis under control.  Bottom line we moved to be closer to the U of M so my wife was being treated only by a melanoma specialist in a melanoma clinic.

                            Ali
                            Participant

                              I have done Temodar in combination with Yervoy.  I had a great response.  I also had colitis after 1 treatment of Yervoy (I had just finished IL-2).  That was June 2012.  I got on a trial at Moffitt where they are studying PD-1 on patients who had dose limiting toxicities to Yervoy.  Contact Dr. Weber for more information if you are interested in pursuing that drug.  It did help me, for sure.  But I have problem with some tumors in my kidney, and I am trying Yervoy again right now.  It has almost been 2 weeks and no colitis!  I know it can come anytime (the one dose I had it was 5 days), but I'm pretty surprised by it all.  Just curious, did the Yervoy help her?

                              Best of luck!

                              Ali
                              Participant

                                I have done Temodar in combination with Yervoy.  I had a great response.  I also had colitis after 1 treatment of Yervoy (I had just finished IL-2).  That was June 2012.  I got on a trial at Moffitt where they are studying PD-1 on patients who had dose limiting toxicities to Yervoy.  Contact Dr. Weber for more information if you are interested in pursuing that drug.  It did help me, for sure.  But I have problem with some tumors in my kidney, and I am trying Yervoy again right now.  It has almost been 2 weeks and no colitis!  I know it can come anytime (the one dose I had it was 5 days), but I'm pretty surprised by it all.  Just curious, did the Yervoy help her?

                                Best of luck!

                                Chris in Minnesota
                                Participant

                                  I had chemo with 3 drugs.  Avastin, carboplatin, and abraxane.   I had a 9 cm tumor in my armpit.  It was involving a main vessel/artery so they needed to shrink the tumor in order to remove it.  After 3 months of chemo, the tumor shrunk dramatically.  When I went in for surgery, the pathology report showed no more live cancer cells (dead tumor).  I was treated at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester.   The Avastin and the Abraxane were not covered by insurance as they are not FDA approved for melanoma so you have to look into that.  Maybe other insurance companies would cover them.  Bottom line is the chemo recipe worked better than what even the doctors were expecting.   The surgery was in August of this year (2013).  I just had my first 3 month scan and am now NED.  Thank God for the doctors at the Mayo Clinic

                                   

                                  Good luck

                                  Chris

                                  Chris in Minnesota
                                  Participant

                                    I had chemo with 3 drugs.  Avastin, carboplatin, and abraxane.   I had a 9 cm tumor in my armpit.  It was involving a main vessel/artery so they needed to shrink the tumor in order to remove it.  After 3 months of chemo, the tumor shrunk dramatically.  When I went in for surgery, the pathology report showed no more live cancer cells (dead tumor).  I was treated at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester.   The Avastin and the Abraxane were not covered by insurance as they are not FDA approved for melanoma so you have to look into that.  Maybe other insurance companies would cover them.  Bottom line is the chemo recipe worked better than what even the doctors were expecting.   The surgery was in August of this year (2013).  I just had my first 3 month scan and am now NED.  Thank God for the doctors at the Mayo Clinic

                                     

                                    Good luck

                                    Chris

                                    Chris in Minnesota
                                    Participant

                                      I had chemo with 3 drugs.  Avastin, carboplatin, and abraxane.   I had a 9 cm tumor in my armpit.  It was involving a main vessel/artery so they needed to shrink the tumor in order to remove it.  After 3 months of chemo, the tumor shrunk dramatically.  When I went in for surgery, the pathology report showed no more live cancer cells (dead tumor).  I was treated at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester.   The Avastin and the Abraxane were not covered by insurance as they are not FDA approved for melanoma so you have to look into that.  Maybe other insurance companies would cover them.  Bottom line is the chemo recipe worked better than what even the doctors were expecting.   The surgery was in August of this year (2013).  I just had my first 3 month scan and am now NED.  Thank God for the doctors at the Mayo Clinic

                                       

                                      Good luck

                                      Chris

                                      Chris in Minnesota
                                      Participant

                                        I had chemo with 3 drugs.  Avastin, carboplatin, and abraxane.   I had a 9 cm tumor in my armpit.  It was involving a main vessel/artery so they needed to shrink the tumor in order to remove it.  After 3 months of chemo, the tumor shrunk dramatically.  When I went in for surgery, the pathology report showed no more live cancer cells (dead tumor).  I was treated at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester.   The Avastin and the Abraxane were not covered by insurance as they are not FDA approved for melanoma so you have to look into that.  Maybe other insurance companies would cover them.  Bottom line is the chemo recipe worked better than what even the doctors were expecting.   The surgery was in August of this year (2013).  I just had my first 3 month scan and am now NED.  Thank God for the doctors at the Mayo Clinic

                                         

                                        Good luck

                                        Chris

                                        Chris in Minnesota
                                        Participant

                                          I had chemo with 3 drugs.  Avastin, carboplatin, and abraxane.   I had a 9 cm tumor in my armpit.  It was involving a main vessel/artery so they needed to shrink the tumor in order to remove it.  After 3 months of chemo, the tumor shrunk dramatically.  When I went in for surgery, the pathology report showed no more live cancer cells (dead tumor).  I was treated at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester.   The Avastin and the Abraxane were not covered by insurance as they are not FDA approved for melanoma so you have to look into that.  Maybe other insurance companies would cover them.  Bottom line is the chemo recipe worked better than what even the doctors were expecting.   The surgery was in August of this year (2013).  I just had my first 3 month scan and am now NED.  Thank God for the doctors at the Mayo Clinic

                                           

                                          Good luck

                                          Chris

                                          Chris in Minnesota
                                          Participant

                                            I had chemo with 3 drugs.  Avastin, carboplatin, and abraxane.   I had a 9 cm tumor in my armpit.  It was involving a main vessel/artery so they needed to shrink the tumor in order to remove it.  After 3 months of chemo, the tumor shrunk dramatically.  When I went in for surgery, the pathology report showed no more live cancer cells (dead tumor).  I was treated at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester.   The Avastin and the Abraxane were not covered by insurance as they are not FDA approved for melanoma so you have to look into that.  Maybe other insurance companies would cover them.  Bottom line is the chemo recipe worked better than what even the doctors were expecting.   The surgery was in August of this year (2013).  I just had my first 3 month scan and am now NED.  Thank God for the doctors at the Mayo Clinic

                                             

                                            Good luck

                                            Chris

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