New chemo regieme

[TarbonNZ]

Hi ladies. I have just been diagnosed with a recurrence after 11.5 months, (ovarian cancer stage 3C high grade serous), and I start new chemo in a week. The new chemo (Avastin is not funded in NZ) is Carboplatin and gemicitabine. Can anyone tell me about side effects. My original treatment was Paclitaxel and Carboplatin. I had significant joint pain with first line treatment and total hair loss. Had hospital admissions as pancytopenic. Would like to know what to expect now. Thanks Therese

[Katmal-UK]

Hi Therese. Sorry to hear about your recurrence. The chemo you are on will pretty much give you the same side effect as before (not sure about pancytopenic?) but you wont lose your hair but it will probably thin (I found hair fibres helped to make it look like it should . Hope it goes well for you. Kathy xx

[Yoshbosh]

His Therese,

I had carbo/gem for second line treatment and found it more tolerable than carbo/taxol (which I didn’t find too bad). I didn’t lose my hair at all, although I did have a couple of hospital admissions due to my gallbladder protesting about chemo. I had the filgrastim injections to help support my neutrophils and never suffered with them being too low. Nausea wasn’t bad at all (often forgot to take my tablets), but I did wear acupressure sea sick wrist bands that I swear by.

I’m not sure I’m your typical carbo/gem experience, but good luck!

Vicki x

[TarbonNZ in reply to Yoshbosh]

Thanks For taking the time to reply Vicki. My major issue was severe joint pain on the Carbo /taxol, so just hoping does not happen again. Regardless of what the outcome is, I am just keen to get started and hopefully ‘kick the beast to touch’.

[Nancy222 in reply to TarbonNZ]

Hello,

Sorry you have to go through this again

I had bad joint pain and neuropathy with the carbo/taxol, so for my 2nd line I had carbo/gem. I handled carbo/gem much better. No joint pains, no neuropathy, no hair loss.

Unfortunately I had to go off it because the oncologist is going to try Caelyx. I had three cycles of carbo/gem.

Best wishes,

Nancy XXOO

[TarbonNZ in reply to Nancy222]

Thanks Nancy. I have nerve damage in several toes, under my feet and tips of my fingers from the Taxol. It was quite bad going through treatment, so much so that the reduced the dosage as they were worried I wouldn’t get the feeling back. It improved a few months after the treatment cycles finished, however I have been left with some residual damage. Learning to live with it. Take care Therese

[Nancy222 in reply to TarbonNZ]

Yes, we're learning to live with a lot.

You take care of yourself also.

XXOO

[Hidden]

I had that combo at 3rd line and found it more tolerable than either carbo single agent or carbotaxol. My hair was okay, and general side effects negligeable. Bloods were the main problem. I had the G-CSF neut boosters routinely and also had at least one blood transfusion. Good luck!

[TarbonNZ]

Thanks for your response, Oncologist thought the blood side could be my worst problem. I had a look through your bio, and see you are a very strong and positive woman. You have experienced a lot of setbacks, yet still take the time to provide info for others. Hope I can gain the same strength and positiveness through this, at the moment it is a little frightening. Kind Regards Therese

[thehusband]

My wife was also 3c (serous) and had gem/carbo as 3rd line. She was meant to have 6 lots but ended up having 8 as it was working so well. If I remember correctly side effects were minimal, some tiredness (to be expected of course) but over the 6 or so months she had this we certainly took a few holidays and she felt as good during most of the this treatment. Hopefully you will too.

[TarbonNZ]

Thank you.