Just a quick update. My CA125 was 6 a few days ago, and so am very pleased with that. It is 14 months since I had my last dose of chemotherapy, and so hopefully ibuprofen is continuing to work for me, as I have talked about in previous posts. I am keeping well, enjoying tennis and hillwalking as usual.
I feel very fortunate that ibuprofen seems to work well for me, and glad that Cancer Research UK are finally doing a large trial of aspirin in patients with treated cancer in remission, to see if it prevents spread, and prolongs remission. This started in October 2015. See their website. The trial does not include ovarian cancer patients, sadly.
Best wishes to all fellow sufferers of ovarian cancer.
Eileen x
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Happy New Year to you, Tina. That is good re taking Naproxen. Very pleased for you. I should have said at the start of my post that I have also been very lucky that I have had chemo 3 times, the first time with surgery in the middle, and each time had a full remission, with no evidence of disease on CT scan and an excellent CA125. I realise that others are not so lucky. It seems it just depends on the type of cancer how well it responds to chemotherapy.
We are all fighting the same battle, and I just have so much respect for all you ladies out there, because it is tough.
Eileen xxx
Happy New Year to you Eileen, I did ask my oncologist about ibuprofen but he said it may work in those who never had diagnosis of cancer but there were no trials that he read to say it worked on recurrences and in that respect he was not going to recommend it for me. I finished Avastin in October so on nothing now, I do juice, I am trying to improve my walking which was hard to do during the stormy weather we had here. I would have to take the odd naproxen okay but I suppose now that I am off Avastin there is nothing stopping me from taking ibuprofen in small doses unknown to my onc. I am also taking boots hair nail and skin tablets which doctors have no problem with as Boots medicines are manufactured under good regulation. I wish you the best and do stay in touch with us. You are one great lady
Thanks Suzuki. Aspirin 75mg daily is another option, that perhaps your oncologist would accept. There has been no large longterm trial for ibuprofen and other NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatories), though there is plenty of circumstantial evidence. But at least they are starting a longterm aspirin study, see above, ADD-Aspirin for those with cancer. It is a shame that some doctors want patients to wait years till a medication is proven to work in trials, instead of just permitting patients to try something out. I don't know your full medical history, but taking aspirin 75mg daily might be an option for you, if you discuss it with your GP, without involving the oncologist. That is what I did with ibuprofen. My own GP was very helpful. I think aspirin 75mg daily (1 small tablet) would be more effective than small doses of ibuprofen.
Great to hear you are doing so well . I too asked oncologist re ibuprofen..he said not during chemo but fine after that . He did put me on low dose aspirin(75mg) after front line , I recurred After a year but who knows may have been sooner without the aspirin . It is frustrating that we still know so little about ovarian cancer , it does seem to be so individual in how it behaves . In the states tumor profiling seems to be getting popular to see which chemo most likely to be effective . My sister is a doctor and she asked a dr who does this for other cancers here in ireland but he said no real benefit to it for ovarian . You would think it would be worth doing together information on how the cancers work etc..alas I'm no scientist !
Anyway delighted to hear you are doing well , really inspiring to see this after three recurrences . Wishing a long and fun filled remission .
As far as I know, no trials have been conducted so there's no real way of knowing if it works or not. In some kinds of Ovarian, inflammation plays a part, so it makes some sense that drug to reduce inflammation may help to slow recurrence.
I'm not making an assertion that it does. It's just that there's no way to test the hypothesis because it hadn't been funded for Ovarian. In my case, apart from occasional nosebleeds I seem ok so I think the risk is worth it. Psychologically, it makes me feel better as, in my mind, I believe the low dose of anti-inflammatory helps me. Whether it does or not, is anyone's guess! Xxx
It is not an anti-inflammatory effect on the cancer. The medical research, various studies, shows that anti-inflammatories like ibuprofen kill cancer cells in the lab (Petri dish of cancer cells), and in mice. Plus the circumstantial evidence that people on anti-inflammatories or aspirin are less likely to get cancer, or if they do they have less spread than the average patient. See my previous posts, especially the references in my first post.
I just go on scientific evidence, that shows that aspirin and anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs) have an anti-cancer effect. Longterm trials will eventually prove it, I am sure, but some of us do not have the time to wait for that, unfortunately.
Incidentally the research shows that this is a general anti-cancer cell effect, and so it does not matter which type of cancer one has.
Thanks Susan. Sorry that aspirin did not work for you. Yes, there appears to be a variety of types of ovarian cancer. You would think tumour profiling would help. I don't know anything about tumour profiling, I am afraid. I see that you are on chemo just now. All best wishes for that.
Hello Eileen, Congratulations on your good news. I have read with much interest your information regarding Aspirin and Ibuprofen. I am due to have my first of three chemo on Wednesday and then hopefully an operation if the chemo works. I have ovarian carcinosarcoma and the oncologist told me that it would come back. Do you think I should take Ibuprofen as soon as this initial treatment is finished, instead of waiting for it to return, as it would appear the return of a carcinosarcoma is inevitable? Best wishes, Helen
Sorry Helen. Finally found this. I think I have replied to you already today in a personal message. Apologies for the confusion. Have been away for a couple of days too. Must have got distracted when I saw this first, or some sort of gremlin!
Wonderful,Eileen! I take a full aspirin every day for past diagnosos of tia. I also take ibuprofen daily for the aches and pains I'm left with post chemo. I told my doctors about the ibuprpfen. They didn't seem impressed and my pcp wondered if the ibuprofen was just keeping the number low artificially. In any case,they had no objections to my taking it. My ca125 is also staying low. I'm due again in Feb. By that time I'll be coming on a year since my last treatment (carboplatin/taxol). Fingers crossed!
The very best to you and all the wonderful ladies on this site! Judy
Good luck with that, Judy. I hope you are taking something to protect your stomach, eg omeprazole, if you are taking aspirin and ibuprofen, as otherwise there is a risk of stomach ulcer or stomach haemorrhage.
That's wonderful news, Eileen. I hope it gives you some confidence in the future. I tell anyone who'll listen your story.
I've just finished The Death of Cancer, by Vince DeVito MD, ex director of the NCI, MSKCC, etc., - not yet published in the UK. He describes the intransigence of some oncologists, and how some patients die because they are denied access to drugs that might work.
I wonder, could we mount our own research programme? If we even noted who took what, that would be a start.
Thanks Victoria. Yes, I would like to do that, theoretically. I meant to take a note as I went along of who said they were on aspirin or an anti-inflammatory. But I haven't done so, unfortunately. I did ask them to keep in touch, and some did for a while. I could go through the records on this site, and try to contact people and see how they are doing, but it would be easier if people just kept in touch with me. I just hope and ask that people who are taking aspirin or an anti-inflammatory would give me an update now and then as to how they are doing. The trouble is that a real thorough research project would be too difficult I think on a site like this, where you can't really get hold of everybody's private medical data!
I agree with you re the intransigence of some oncologists. My own oncologist only mentioned to me a year ago that he agreed that ibuprofen had an anti-cancer effect, but as yet there had been no large scale trial. Before that he was somewhat dismissive of the whole concept, and obviously had not read the medical literature on the subject. At least he finally has read it up, probably because of my unusual experience.
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