My mom is stage 3c high grade. She had ascites before diagnosed but after frontline of carbo/gem and Avastin for 6months her ca-125 is very low but was never high..79 at diagnosis and 13 during treatment. Dr says her scans don't show anything except small ascites still. He put her on Tomaxafin. Has anyone had luck with that with her type and stage. She's 75 with high blood pressure and diabetic. She seems very strong but she felt the same when she was diagnosed. Worried the CT is not picking up the small maglignant cells from the fluid and the cancer is spreading. Not too sure why we are on tomaxafin instead of the he Parp. Any thoughts or advice?
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Christinebetty
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why do you think you can have PARP? if you can then request it. or get second opinion.
CT and PET scans have laminations in size of masses they can see so only way it to wait.
Tamoxifen (not Tomaxafin?) is working better on pre-menopausal women and only few small studies shown that it can be beneficial for post hysterectomy or post menopausal women too. and only on ER sensitive tumours. if I'm wrong please correct me ladies
I'd get second opinion in your case but her choice is rather limited and she is already on Avastin so you can't really get anything for front line I'm afraid.
Ascites is not necessarily malignant. I had a fluid biospy to determine mine. Has this been done?
That may put that concern to bed.
Take care
Clare xx
Hi ChristineBetty. I'm no expert here but I'm inclined to agree with Clare - ascites alone not being malignant. I don't believe a recurrence necessarily needs to be treated immediately. My onc told me (and I've heard it other places too), that they prefer to watch and wait as (apart from the fact that you're being monitored), they can treat any tumours that are growing just as easily as ones that are barely detectable. I think that tumours beginning to grow, often aren't detectable straight away, even with a CT scan. Also, my onc said that he only has so many weapons in his armoury, therefore he's not eager to use them up too soon. Your Mum's CA125 being so low is very encouraging.
I know nothing about Tomoxifin but I thought Parps were for women who possess a BRCA gene - could be wrong of course.
I think I'd be inclined to relax and wait for the next CT scan. Just an opinion.
I'm wondering how your Mum went with Avastin, since she has high blood pressure.
I'm sorry I did not notice you asked about Avastin. She has been taken off since she was leaking protein. It was very disappointing. Her blood pressure shot up too
I'm just checking in on your treatment. My mom is now in arimidex and her ca125 went down. She has high grade so I'm confused why no one seems to have used this with high grade serous. What type of OC do you have and stage? Hope you continue to have good results with this treatment. It make sure me a little less stressed
Tamoxifen didn't work for me, but I had another hormone therapy tablet that did help. My oncologists suggested hormone therapy because they wanted to give me a break from chemo. I then had chemo when the hormone therapy was no longer working. Could your mom's dr be wanting to delay giving her more chemo, especially if there was no tumour seen on scan, just ascites? Why not ask your mom's dr the reason for the choice of treatment when she has her next appointment. Di
The one that worked best for me was Exemestane. I also had Arimidex for 6 months. But different drugs may work differently for different people. I hope Tamoxifen helps your mom. Di
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