Ray from NYC

Thanks, Karen and Michael. 

Michael, I do not know what his ALC is.  I am trying to find out.  He did get the white beard, though. 

Regarding whether diarrhea is indicative of a response, I think I meant colitis rather than diarrhea, including getting colitis rather quickly.

Thank you for your information and links, which I am still going through and digesting.

One other question:  he apparently had a minor fainting episode today — basically felt nauseous and felt faint but did not lose consciousness.  About a month ago he did kind of lose consciousness also, perhaps not all the way.  He is speaking with his doctor about this, of course.  Could this be simply a reaction from the dacarbazine/ipi, or could it be an indication of brain mets?  He has no other such symptoms (loss of memory or alertness, etc.).  And the brain scan in April was clean.

Thanks again for the helpful responses.  I really appreciate it.

Ray

Thanks, Karen and Michael. 

Michael, I do not know what his ALC is.  I am trying to find out.  He did get the white beard, though. 

Regarding whether diarrhea is indicative of a response, I think I meant colitis rather than diarrhea, including getting colitis rather quickly.

Thank you for your information and links, which I am still going through and digesting.

One other question:  he apparently had a minor fainting episode today — basically felt nauseous and felt faint but did not lose consciousness.  About a month ago he did kind of lose consciousness also, perhaps not all the way.  He is speaking with his doctor about this, of course.  Could this be simply a reaction from the dacarbazine/ipi, or could it be an indication of brain mets?  He has no other such symptoms (loss of memory or alertness, etc.).  And the brain scan in April was clean.

Thanks again for the helpful responses.  I really appreciate it.

Ray

Thanks, TracyLee.  I am fairly new here 🙂

I've updated my profile.  The patient is my father, 68 years old.  The initial tumor was on his temple (8mm, so rather large), and he had it surgically removed in May 2009.  No sign of spread at the time.  In December 2011 we learned the melanoma had metastasized to his lung, liver, spine, pelvis, and hip.  The tumor in his spine fractured his vertebrae and he needed surgery to correct that, during which time the surgeon removed what he could from the spine.  The rest they radiated.  The oncologist guesses the metastasis occurred in May of 2010. 

He's been through a round of Abraxane/Avastin, which reduced or removed the lung tumors and kept everything else stable but didn't help his liver.  Went on ipi/dacarbazine in April 2011.  He had some diarrhea issues on the ipi, which developed fairly quickly after the first ipi infusion, and they gave him prednisone (started with 80 mg and then reduced to 5).  He got three ipi infusions but wasn't able to complete the fourth in the 16 week period because of the diarrhea issues.

The indication right now is that the disease is stable.  But he's had horrible, debilitating pain in one of his hips for 6 weeks, and the doctors can't figure out why (but do not think it is cancer-related; they've done x-rays, MRI, bone scan).  I am wondering whether the hip pain might be related to the ipi and/or prednisone.  Also at issue is that he had a hip replacement in the same hip about four years ago.  I don't know if that's related, but his hip surgeon (as with the other doctors) said that from the x-rays, the hip replacement appears to be in place and just fine.  He's lost 40 pounds through the treatments.

That's the background of the situation.  I look forward to any replies.

Best,

Ray

Thanks, TracyLee.  I am fairly new here 🙂

I've updated my profile.  The patient is my father, 68 years old.  The initial tumor was on his temple (8mm, so rather large), and he had it surgically removed in May 2009.  No sign of spread at the time.  In December 2011 we learned the melanoma had metastasized to his lung, liver, spine, pelvis, and hip.  The tumor in his spine fractured his vertebrae and he needed surgery to correct that, during which time the surgeon removed what he could from the spine.  The rest they radiated.  The oncologist guesses the metastasis occurred in May of 2010. 

He's been through a round of Abraxane/Avastin, which reduced or removed the lung tumors and kept everything else stable but didn't help his liver.  Went on ipi/dacarbazine in April 2011.  He had some diarrhea issues on the ipi, which developed fairly quickly after the first ipi infusion, and they gave him prednisone (started with 80 mg and then reduced to 5).  He got three ipi infusions but wasn't able to complete the fourth in the 16 week period because of the diarrhea issues.

The indication right now is that the disease is stable.  But he's had horrible, debilitating pain in one of his hips for 6 weeks, and the doctors can't figure out why (but do not think it is cancer-related; they've done x-rays, MRI, bone scan).  I am wondering whether the hip pain might be related to the ipi and/or prednisone.  Also at issue is that he had a hip replacement in the same hip about four years ago.  I don't know if that's related, but his hip surgeon (as with the other doctors) said that from the x-rays, the hip replacement appears to be in place and just fine.  He's lost 40 pounds through the treatments.

That's the background of the situation.  I look forward to any replies.

Best,

Ray