Going back to a old chemo regimen – experiences anyone?

Amilcar, Sorry to here your Dad’s current regimen isn’t going so well. I had cisplatin and stopped at round 5, as it literally wore me to a frazzle. I have never returned to an old chem regimen but have continued on with other chemo regimens. For me cisplatin showed little effectiveness if any looking at results of Ct Scan after round three. I agree with you about taking a break and trying something different. I took a 4 month break and now trying taxotere. Just have my 2 consecative round yesterday. I had one round a while back but thought I should have started at a lower dosage but agreed to go ahead and it put in in nuetropenic state within 4 days. Had to take antibiotics and figrastin injections for aweek. Now I’m doing lower dosage 60 instead of 75 and although I stll take antibiotic and injections days 5-10 it has been very tolerable and hopefully after one more round the Ct Scan shows something positive, I keep on going, if not I’ll stop. Oh my hair fell out first round real quick. This time around with lower dosage it has taken awhile. But I don’t mind having a shiny head as it tells me it’s killing cells” I HOPE AS MANY CANCEROUS ONES AS GOOD ONEs” is my theory at the moment. There are warnings about using Taxotere after platinum drugs but I have tried all 3 oxyplatin, cisplatin, and carboplatin. There are other warnings saying it is okay if at a lower dosage where am now. After firing and then rehiring my oncologist to set the record straight that just because I’m not a doctor I’m not ignorant to current research and I know better than anyone how my body is feeling and what it is doing. I’m sorry to go on but my philosopy is if it is not working or doing more harm than good move on to something else or take a break. If it is working it will still work after you take a break. I really hope and pray things work out with the treatments and or break. I really didn’t think I was ever going to crawl out of that cisplatin hole.
God”s Prayers and my thoughts,
Jeff G.

HI Amilcar-Dave was on Gemzar and Oxcilliplatin for 5 rounds until he developed pleural effusion then he stopped and shortly thereafter started on IV vitamin C which he is still doing. His latest CT scan showed growth in all his tumors, so he has started back on just the gemzar, 3 wks. on and 1 wk off. We hope to get to the Cancer Treatment of America in January and we hope they will have other alternatives. Don’t know if this helps at all. We hope your Dad feels better soon and that you too are able to enjoy this season.
Patrice