Has anyone self funded Avastin for 2nd or 3rd year?

[Be-Positive]

Has anyone self-funded Avastin and is there any benefit in doing so? Mum will finish her Avastin in August, I am going to email her McMillian nurse and ask for advise too - however I wanted to know if anyone has had it for more than a year and why they did and if it helps keep the cancer away?

Mum is stage 4 but with no evidence of disease currently.

[lesleysage]

Hello Be-Positive,

I didn't self fund as my insurance company was ok to pay for the 12 doses I had in combination with a dose-dense regime of carboplatin + taxol. The nurse said Avastin cost about £2,000 per infusion, making mine a total of £24,000. In comparison, if I recall correctly, she said Carboplatin was about £500 per infusion and Taxol about £800. But now well over 2 years ago since this conversation so my memory may not be accurate.

Certainly, asking Macmillan sounds a good idea. My only other thought is the Ovacome helpline?

Lesley

[LesleyGreengran]

I stayed on avastin after second line chemo for18 months, but the cancer then started to progress while I was still on it so it was stopped. I didn't pay. They tried to stop it after a year but I argued with them and read the CDF guidelines, which were unclear, so they let me continue. Those then changed and I haven't seen the new version. I have no idea if it helped at all, and I am now on 3rd line chemo. I stopped avastin in May last year and my CA125 stayed stable for another 6 months and I started 3rd line in November. I am glad I didn't pay for it. If it worked at all it was just for a few months. Do have a go at arguing with the doctors before you go down that route, if you do, and look up the guidelines for your mother's specific stage of treatment.

[Be-Positive in reply to LesleyGreengran]

Hi Lesley, hope you are well. Looks like mums cancer has returned whilst on avastin too. Mum was given all clear in September but now it's showing a mass in her pelvis and spots on her liver. We are waiting for next steps.. Such a shame the avastin stops working, I heard that a few times. Hope your keeping well and fighting as usual xxx