› Forums › General Melanoma Community › Stage 4 Lung mets and Opdivo
- This topic has 13 replies, 6 voices, and was last updated 4 years, 5 months ago by MelMel.
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- July 6, 2020 at 5:34 pm
Hello,My dear father had VAT surgery in March ( 3 melanoma mets) and no other treatment, only CT for 3 m( his history is on my profile- from stage 2c to 4).
CT 11.06 confirmed new 5 new metastasis in the hilar part of his left lung. Next week he starts OPDIVO therapy.
How this therapy received? What are side efect?
He is 71 years old and in good health.
What are the experiences with this therapy?I am so sorry for my bad english.
Thanks a lot to everybody.
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- July 7, 2020 at 12:49 am
Dear BRR,Am sorry for what your father is going through. I will try to answer since no one else has yet answered (holidays?). I have been on Keytruda which is similar to opdivo (or nivoluminab). Most people tolerate it pretty well, with fatigue the main side effect (and in my case I tried to keep moderate exercise to get myself through this or to ignore it). There can be worse side effects though, so you just have to monitor carefully – you and your doctor will do this, together with regular bloodwork. If you do a search you should be able to find other people’s experiences, but most are OK.
One question is whether you should combine the nivo/opdivo with ipi – the combo – which has a better success rate but at a much greater side effect risk. Others know more about this. I was on ipi once and had to quit after one treatment because of side effetcts.
You may want to add which country and location you are in , in your profile. This can determine your treatment options, Best advice is to make sure to see a melanoma specialist.
I hope your father will be well
Best wishes Mark-
- July 7, 2020 at 12:51 am
PS on how treatment is received – its via infusion. This can be done in and out at the hospital. You need to do bloodwork before the infusion. Some people do it same day but if the results are delayed you end up staying a long time at the hospital, So i would do my blood work a few days before the infusion date. -
- July 7, 2020 at 7:33 am
Dear Mark,THANK YOU.
I do a search here (I read posts every day for 3 years :)), but did not find finally whether received for 2 weeks or 4 weeks.
In my country ( Serbia) there are not many treatment options. I am happy that he received immunotherapy at all.
5 metastases in lung – very scary and bad + risk of covid.
All the best to everyone here!Ana
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- July 8, 2020 at 2:15 am
Ana, nebrinite. Opdivo je uredu i moze se davati svake dve sedmice ili svake cetiri. Ja sam pocela sa Yervoy i Opdivom jer imam tumore na plucima i na jetri. Posle dve infuzije morala sam da prestanem i sada sam samo na Opdivi. Nadajmo se da Opdivo je dovoljno za tatu. Svakako neka nosi masku i neka se pazi kad ide na infuzije. Uglavnom ovde u Michiganu, USA vadi se krv sat pre infuzije i onda se ide na infuziju koja je gotova posle 35-45 minuta. Osecate se malo umornim i mene reuma vise kaci sto je deo posledica ali sve u svemu je veoma izdrzljivo. Ako ista vise trebate slobodno se javite. Cerka mi zivi u BG.
Pozdrav i sve najbolje,
Melanie -
- July 8, 2020 at 6:08 am
HVALA VAM MNOGO.
Bas ste mi pomogli. Nadam se da ce Opdivo biti dovoljan jer su manji nezeljeni efekti od kombinacije sa drugim lekom.
Ovde se izgleda ostaje noc u bolnici kada se prima infuzija sto me plasi zbog situacije sa virusom.
Nadam se da ste Vi dobro.
Pozdrav iz Bg i za vas i za cerku i svako dobro vam zelim.
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- July 7, 2020 at 3:04 pm
Hi BRR,Sorry for what you and your dad are facing, but glad that he is getting immunotherapy. Side effects to anti-PD-1 vary a good bit patient to patient. I put this together some years ago, but these most common side effects still stand: https://chaoticallypreciselifeloveandmelanoma.blogspot.com/2013/10/side-effects-of-nivolumab.html
The good news we have also learned is that while the elderly can certainly develop side effects to immunotherapy, just like the rest of us – they do not suffer them to any greater extent. Here are several posts on research that demonstrates that point (click on the links within to additional info): https://chaoticallypreciselifeloveandmelanoma.blogspot.com/2018/08/elderly-in-need-of-immunotherapy-can.html
Your father should be watchful and report any untoward reactions to his docs as soon as he recognizes them. We have learned a great deal about how to address side effects much more appropriately and effectively over the past ten years. Hope this helps. I wish you both my best. Celeste
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- July 7, 2020 at 7:25 pm
Celeste, thank you very much.
I feel so loonely because in my small country no one has survived this disease. I read the positive outcomes only on this forum. I am afraid of a lot of negative effects of therapy, but I am most afraid of melanoma.I hope that opdivo therapy will have an effect on my father’s metastases in left lung.
Best wishes to all
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- July 7, 2020 at 9:07 pm
Hi BRR
So good that you can research and advocate for your father.
I also had lung Mets. They were large. I started with Keytruda ( similar to opdivo) which shrank them down and then had the vats surgery to remove them. I had an infusion every three weeks for 9 months. At that point my side effects were too bad to continue. In my case I had very bad arthritic type of joint and muscle pain and couldn’t move. I am now on a self inject drug called humira which works wonderfully and I live and work as normal. ( I’m 63) IN general the side effects seem to be the result of the body’s inflammation reaction. The one to watch out for is colitis which is serious. In very rare cases the heart can be inflamed. The other very common side effect is loss of thyroid function. That happened to me right away and I am on thyroxin, just a small pill once a day and my hormone levels are normal
I hope the immunotherapy works as well for your father as it did for me
Anne-Louise -
- July 8, 2020 at 6:12 am
I am also in Eastern Europe. 🙂 I had Keytruda for Stage 4, and it worked well. My side effects were tiredness, a little bit if a rash, and eventually colitis and weight loss. We stopped before I got to a full response because of the colitis, but the immunotherapy kept working, and I reached NED soon after.-
- July 8, 2020 at 6:21 am
Also, here they had me stay in the hospital for observation with the first infusion, but after that I didn’t have to stay.
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