Gemcitibine combined Carboplatin

This question is for those who have had this treatment in the past. What has been the average period of remission post this treatment. Sandra is on the verge of stopping her treatment if the average remission period is 3 mths or less. Please be honest. Love Paul xx

[Hidden]

This is really difficult. Two suggestions; one is to ask the same question on the American Inspire site - the Ovarian Cancer National Alliance. There are many more there and you are liable to get more answers. It's called Gemzar over there - I believe the protocol (dose etc.) is the same.

Secondly is this: I don't know how relevant the experience of others is to your situation - everyone is different. Much depends on how much disease there is at the start of treatment. I would suggest talking to your oncologist and specialist nurse. Your oncologist is obviously giving it because he believes it will help and may be difficult to quantify how much it will help until the treatment is over, Are there any alternatives?

Has Sandra simply got chemo fatigue? If so can you go away to somewhere pleasant for a few days of r&r? Or even a bumch of spring flowers?

Hope you get this resolved. Cx

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Done the flowers, I think your right its prob chemo fatigue, we will take advice at clinic tomorrow, thanks for your input. Px

[nikki9]

Hi I had gem/carb for my second line chemo I have stage 4 grade 2c after the treatment the cancer was inactive I suppose I was free for about 4 months but I agree with what has been said we are all different and I am sure some ladies go a lot longer. I am now on 18 weeks of taxol only but I am realistic and don't expect a long remission. But please soldier on your treatment might be just the one for you. All good luck and a big hug nikki x

[fannyanny]

Sorry to say that mine only lasted 6weeks

Went thru it well too! First 3 shrunk it but last 3 it stayed the same. Was given remmission on 4th Dec with ca125 of 13 tben it went up 2 108. But that was me. Hope tbis helps. ? X

[Hidden in reply to fannyanny]

It does, we know others where it too did,nt work. Px

[Tess]

Hi, I have just finished my sixth gem/carbo, and am waiting for a CT scan so unsure at the moment how things will go. I will let you know, hope things improve, I have to say I have found this one has taken it out of me more than the previous ones, with having low magnesium and blood transfusions. I hope things improve for Sandra, chin up and hope for the best.

Tess x

[Hidden in reply to Tess]

Likewise, but only done 2, she is dreading any more. Px

[Hidden]

Hi,

I did carbo/gem as 6th line. I found it harder on my blood counts than the others and they had to reduce the dose of the gem towards the end. We tried to get away whist I was on it just to relax away from home which lovely but it is isn't always relaxing at home stuff gets inthe way, It was good to have time just for each other. However I only had 3months after I had finished before my Ca125 were rising again. It's always worth a try to keep going,evenif it just buys a bit more time. Something else may come on the ,market or maybe the cancer might just get worn out for a change!!! But you have to way up the pros and cons as they effect you.

These decisions are always so difficult. I hope that Sandra finds the right way for her with support and guidance fronm you and her oncologist, Sandra is nearly half way, one more and she is over the hump. Good luck

Love Sue x

[trolleydollyuk]

Hi

I had this combination for 2nd line treatment, I got 6 months remission. Have to say every time i have had to have chemo i have wanted to give up and stop treatment as the thought of more treatment is always so daunting but once it's underway i have always been glad that i have continued. It is exhausting but once i get to the half way mark i start seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. I found that it played havoc with my bloods and i needed more transfusions then 1st line but the transfusions always made me feel so much better. I hope this helps

shabila xxx

[sarah1963]

Dear Paul and Sandra

Focus on the date when the treatment will end, book a holiday. I've just come back from 10 days in Cyprus which was lovely - only a couple of weeks after finishing my gem/carbo. I will start weekly taxol very shortly. So in answer to your question about remission - well I haven't really had one BUT I feel well and I AM HERE!! Its a case of being faced with 2 dreadful options - a summer on treatment or ?! The choice for me is to carry on.

I was lucky in that the gem/carbo didn't make me feel too bad although phycologically I find chemo very hard. It is a very personal judgement and only Sandra will know how much more she can take.

All the best with whatever you decide.

Sarah

[Suzy]

I had little response from carbo / gem . Stiopped the treatment mid course and with only a 4 week gap switched to weekly taxol. This started out really well but then petered out in the last month of the course .

[Hidden]

This is my point, Sandra feels that this treatment has a poor track record, the onc did admit it only has a 25% success rate so she wonders why is she going through what amounts to 3 weeks of feeling rubbish followed by one week of getting better before the next cycle. Our prob is that she has had the weekly taxol and the other standard treatments and we are running out of options. Something we will discuss today at clinic. I know we should always hope and give it time to see what the outcome is with this treatment. Be interesting to see the CA results tomorrow.

[LRay in reply to Hidden]

I DIDN'T SEE THE DATE ON THIS WAS 5 YEARS AGO UNTIL AFTER I POSTED AND THE SYSTEM REFUSES TO DELETE MY COMMENT. Oh, dear.

[Hidden]

Hi Sandra and Paul

Hope all went well today. As we always say people respond in different ways but with this combination it seems to have a lot of the same comments. I was on this regime and after having the 3 weekly Carbo/plat which I sailed through. This I found totally different, as well as the injections for low blood counts I did feel exhausted. My CA 125 didnt seem to go down very fast in fact I was getting a bit depressed. I had quiet a lot must check up on this, but had to come off it due to fluid in the lung, Then started the taxol regime which I have finished had a scan yesterday and results next week. So that will be the chruncher. Let us know how its gone.

Regards Barbara

[thehusband]

My wife had this for 3rd line treatment and result wise it was the best of all. Her CA125 went from a 1000 to 100 (never ever been lower since diagnosis) - because it was 'working' so well she ended up having 8 instead of 6 cycles. However within 10 weeks of finishing CA125 started to rise and tumours started to grow again.

She found it tough ish but cos the results were positive we kept going.....currently on Letrozole for 5th line but we dont think this is doing anything positive, though maybe quite a bit negative. See the Onc in 2 weeks and if our suspicions are confirmed we are going to see if we can go back to Gem/Carbo cos by then it will be 11 months since she finished that.

We are like you and running out of options, which of course is worrying...........good luck whatever you decided.

[chezgravel]

I had gem/Carbo as 2nd line treatment for my peritoneal (similar to ovarian only starts in the peritoneal) cancer.

It sort of worked for a while according to CA 125 or at least it seemed to stabilise it a bit but by the end of the treatment my CT showed some small progression which was very upsetting however I was referred to another professor in Birmingham who treated me with an untrialed combination of drugs for ovarian cancer namely Myocet and Avastin. My option were running out so nothing to loose really but amazingly I had a small reduction which was brilliant as I had been told nothing more could be done for me. I finished the chemo in November and since then continued with Avastin alone which has held the cancer to date. A miracle no less and certainly a genius consultant. Just hoping to continue without progression.

Don't give up and best of luck

Chezgravel

[Fitzy]

I also had gem/caarbo as 2nd line treatment (finished April 2012). Had 4 months before CA starting rising and a scan in the October showed tumours growing. I have since had surgery for removal of tumours so am, hopefully, in remission for the time being. I had a difficult time on the gem/carbo regime, as has previously been mentioned - low blood counts, long delays between treatments while bloods came back up and injections for low wbc (white blood count). Not a good regime and it seems it didn't work for long, for me anyway. Hope things work out better for Sandra. We just have to leave it to the professionals and hope for the best, but doing a lot of research and getting as much info as possible from those who have been there, can be very enlightening.

Best wishes

Colette xxxxxxx

[sharonforce]

I know exactly how she feels. I think I had chemo fatigue too.

I had GemCarbo as fourth line treatment and only had 3 cycles as ct scan showed no shrinkage of disease. My CA125 went down to 10 and I had no substantial tumour growth but I was advised to stop GemCarbo and I am now considered platinum-resistant. I have today just started another trial - 6MP (first tablets taken - so far so good). I asked similar questions of my doctors before starting GemCarbo as I was worried about the short remission times I had read about but was assured that wasn't necessarily the case,

Is Sandra due for a scan after cycle three? Maybe make a decision based on that.

Best wishes

Sharon

[Hidden in reply to sharonforce]

Hot news! just came out of clinic and the prof has decided to book her in for a scan in couple of weeks. She will have her 3rd cycle today with reduced dose followed by week2 next week. CA results due tomorrow morning which will become meaningless as the scan will give a clearer picture of whats happening.

[Hidden]

Hope you are both feeling a bit more positive and when you have the scan results that will make things clearer. Hope we didnt make you feel full of gloom,.Ii find this is one of the brilliant things about this site support and honesty, I think it gives us lots of interesting information, at least it gives us some insite when we go for our consultations.

Take care Barbara..

[Hidden]

Good question as I have just started this regime, not sure if I like the answers though.

I have been put on this regime after my local hospital stopped treatment and I had a 2nd opinion at Royal Marsden. They suggested Caelyx or failing that then Gem/Carbo.

(I was not suitable for a trial)

Surprise, surprise local hospital couldn't get Caelyx so I'm on this.

They are starting me on Gem only for first two, to see how blood holds up as last time on Carbo/taxol I kept failing the blood test and had delays and/or injections.

Only second day after first treatment and feeling lousy.

I am in trouble as I have had no remission and RM were clear time is of the essence.

[Hidden]

See Sandra,s update blog..........