the van der Burg regimen

[zuzana]

hello, i have had back in September second opinion at royal Marsden but i felt i need to go little bit further. i did had appointment with professor at Harley street clinic. It was very helpful.at royal they classed me as platinum sensitive but Professor at Harley thinks I'm platinum resistant and changed my future treatment. I'm very happy i did went for second "third" opinion. if i wouldn't go i would get chemotherapy which is less likely to lead to a significant response. did anyone received the van der burg regimen? what to expect and mainly what outcome is after this regimen?

love zuzi

[Whippit]

Dear Zuzana

I think the Van der Berg Regimen is the same as the Rotterdam Technique and this has been successful with patients who are resistent to platinum. It's a regime of cispatin and oral etopiside.

There are a couple of blogs/questions on this regime. One member did a bit of research and found the following links:

telegraph.co.uk/news/uk...

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/...

The regime was originally developed at the Rotterdam Cancer Institute about 10 years ago.

I really do hope you can try this if it's recommended by a Harley St oncologist. Let us know how you're getting on.

love Annie xx

[zuzana in reply to Whippit]

Annie, cant open the link

[Whippit in reply to zuzana]

Dear Zuzana

I looked again at the old blog and found a member had done some research and had found a comparison between the Rotterdam Technique and the Van de Burgh. Here is what she said:

_Van der Berg regimes_

Cisplatin 60mg/m2 IV Day 1, 8 and 15

Etoposide 50mg (total dose) PO daily Day 1 to 15

Repeat every 4 weeks, 2 cycles

then, if responding:

Etoposide 50mg/m2 PO daily Day 1 to 21

Repeat every 4 weeks, up to 6 cycles

_Rotterdam_

Day 1

Cisplatin and hydration (fluids) via a drip over approx 13 hours.

Day 8 This involves an overnight stay in hospital

Day 15 AND

Day 1 to 15 Etoposide capsules to take at home (50mg once a day)

This treatment is then repeated after a two-week break. You will receive 6

doses of cisplatin IV chemotherapy in total. After this you will continue

treatment with oral etoposide capsules, which are to be taken daily for 21 days

(3 weeks course followed by 1 week break) for a total of 6 to 9 cycles.

I'll try the link in the original post to see if I can get to the site. It might be it's just offline now as the post was over a year ago.

Will be back with any information I can find.

Best wishes.

Annie xx

[MidwifeGill in reply to Whippit]

Woow Annie very informative..... Well done x

[zuzana]

Annie, thank u so much for respond. was searching on net but couldnt find much info about regime.

after january scan we will know more when to start treatment. feel little bit positive about this one and hope will work. im just 32 years old so trying my hardest to keep positive

love zuzi xxx

[Becalm]

Dear Zuzanna

Yes there are some people on here( check Bellabee and Lizward) who have had experience of the Rotterdam regime and I have recently started on it too. I was greatly indebted to them for sharing candidly with me when I raised a similar question to yours as it prepared me for its demands and encouraged me to continue with it.

I am not actually sure of it being for platinum resistant patients( though it is for platinum allergic patients of which I am one) as one of the main drugs - cisplatin - is a platinum drug which as I understand it has been replaced by carboplatin now commonly used because it s side effects are less demanding. Allergic reactions to carboplatin are relatively common but they are rare to cisplatin.

In any event so far I have two rounds of preliminary treatment with the aim of shrinking the tumours. This consisted of three weekly infusions of cisplatin alongside taking etoposide capsules daily at home con currently for the first two weeks and then one(fourth) week to recuperate. I have to say I found it quite demanding ( but then I am considerably older than you) and I was glad I was warned of this by these ladies and advised to ask for good anti-sickness and constipation medications from the beginning.

My scan at the end of these weeks showed what my oncologist considered a good result in that the tumours had all shrunk and there were no new ones. I have just this last week started on the next part of the regime which is to take the etoposide capsule daily for one week out of three. My blood status will be checked every three weeks at the hospital clinic and I will continue on this regime as long as it is effective and asmy system can cope with it. The hope and expectation is that the etoposide will control any further spread. I am particularly encouraged in this by the experience of these ladies both of whom have enjoyed quite prolonged ( in one case almost two years) of what I suppose you could claim is a form of remission.

As further reassurance perhaps I should say that it is now over seven years since I was diagnosed. After initial surgery and chemo. I had over three years of remission but four further lines of chemo. only resulted in two periods of just over six months of further remission. However I can say that my very worthy oncology team still show no sign of being defeated so neither do I and the Rotterdam regime does seem as your advisors have indicated to be well worth persevering with.What I mean is you have many avenues still to explore and have wisely decided to do just that.

So - now I am off to finish my much delayed Christmas cards and would like to wish you alongside success with your treatment an enjoyable and peaceful Christmas. And as we say in Highland Scotland - Bliadhna Mhath Ur Dhaibh - A Good New Year to You and Yours - and indeed to all on this site in case I am not on again during the festive season though I will of course keep in touch with what others write - as I have just being saying - it is valuable stuff!

Bunty.

[Suzy]

I hope both zusanna and becalm will keep us up to date with his

[zuzana]

thank you for your replays, very helpful. this site is what i need. everybody knows what I'm talking about and trying to help x

Becalm, reading regime works is giving me lot of hope. pleased to read your Ct scan result are good and tumours did shrunk. that is what we want achieve in my case. I have a tumour sitting on the wall of the liver which we managed to shrink in first line of chemo and stopped growing but tumours on abdomen wall are slowly growing. and hope regime will help to shrink them and give me more time with my young family.

professor at Harley gave me two options of treatment. One; Cisplatin and Etoposide and second;Carboplatin and Gemcitabine which he thinks is less likely to lead to a significant response. he said I'm young,well and strong so should go for option one. I'm still on Avastin(13 months),which he wants me to continue with for little longer but just got a letter from AXA they going to stop pay for it in January :(:( hope my oncologist will come up with a plan B.

Annie, it helpful to see comparison between the Rotterdam Technique and the Van de Burgh.

Wishing u all the best

love zuzi