- Re: Delay of Avastin & Update on Hubby

[Guest guest]

altman23@y... wrote:

<<As others have suggested, it is possible that there are clinical

trials out there which he is eligible for, but there is no " super

drug " I am aware of currently in trials which has a HIGH

probablility of " working " .>> AND

<<Avastin and C225 will PROBABLY NOT be available SOON after the new

year (this is MY PERSONAL FEELING, guess, or what have you...your onc

may believe otherwise, and I could well be wrong). Having

followed the approval of new cancer drugs for awhile now, unless the

FDA has really changed the way they operate and decided to REALLY

kick things into gear, I believe it will be well into the year before

these drugs actually hit the market. They'll get here eventually,

just not " fast " as we would like. So I would NOT make any treatment

decisions right now which ASSUME you can get them in Jan/Feb.>>

******** That is exactly what our " Guiding Oncologist " told us

yesterday. He believes it will be deeper into the year before either

Erbitux or Avastin is ready, so he said we really need to look at

other ideas to get to that point. For those reading this and not

familiar with my husband's situation ..... a very quick " catch up " :

Rick was dx Stage IV in Sept. '02, colon tumor removed, 6 of 6

positive lymph nodes, very heavy mets to the liver (over 70%/both

lobes). Did well for 7 months of CPT-11/5FU/LV, switched to

Oxaliplatin/Xeloda (4,000 mgs) in July. Has had been experiencing

sizable rise in CEA for last 15 weeks. Two cycles ago (a cycle being

3 weeks) we increased Xeloda to 5,000 mgs, and on the last cycle we

added 800 mgs of Celebrex. His CEA had been doubling for 3 cycles,

but after adding Celebrex, it only went up 30 points (or about 18%).

While his CEA is not going down, as we all wish for, it did at least

not jump up nearly as much. Due to that fact, Dr. Bradford suggested

the following plan: He told Rick to continue taking the 800 mgs of

Celebrex (even in his " off week " ) and said if his next CEA test has

an increase again ....... we should try moving his Xeloda to 6,000

mgs. That sounds like a lot, but Rick has had NO side effects from

the Xeloda, so he told him he felt safe in increasing the dosage, but

that at some point we would hit " Rick's Maximum tolerated dosage " .

He said when Rick begins to see those symptoms (mouth sores, hand &

foot syndrome, etc) that we will cut it back a little, but he would

experience those symptoms for about 7 days once they start. Rick is

willing to " push the envelope " , as he says ;-), to try to get better

results from this treatment. So, we'll just have to see how it

works.

, I asked about using Iressa and he basically said they really

haven't had very good results from that. Only about 17% response in

Lung cancer and not that good on Colon. It's his opinion (and we all

know how many different opinions exist out there!) that we not go

there. He IS still holding the HAI pump out there is reserve, but

doesn't think that's where we should go yet. Rick isn't too hip on

anything surgically implanted if he has ANY other options first.

He's less than happy with the itching and tightness of his port-a-

cath and isn't real excited about sticking another object under his

skin. :-) So ............... that's where we are ............

basically looking at increasing his Xeloda, unless his numbers go

down on December 31st. Once again ......... we're back in the " wait

and see " mode. :-) But, we're happy to be in that mode with his

great quality of life .............. so I'm really not

complaining!!!! )

Thanks,

Donna Sisco