Search Results for '5fu'

Dan –
I think Matt covered it pretty well. The meds that seem to work best are a combination of the Gabapentin, Lyrica and Cymbalta. Then resorting to pain medications to cover the actual pain the neuropathy causes. I would definitely go with physical therapy and I would also look into occupational therapy as they can help with upper body stuff and things like dressing, tying shoes, etc. They may also be able to work with the physical therapist to deal with some of the balance issues…..there are exercises and stuff to help with that.
Massage, acupuncture and anything like Reiki may help to. She may not completely recover but should gain come back.
My husband had pretty severe hand and foot syndrome to the 5FU and even after a month off is still having troubles, especially with his hands. Buttons are really hard and he has a hard time checking his blood sugars.
Good luck and hopefully you find something that works well.

KrisV

I don’t know. We always saw our doc in the infusion room when he had chemo and then they had separate consult rooms for when we don’t do chemo. They were private rooms when we were doing any sort of chemo (I loved that) and then semi-private when it was just fluids. Both of the times that Mark had reactions to the chemo we saw the doc again….once our own ONC and then one time ours was gone and we saw the on-call one. And then when we were doing the 5FU and having so many problems, we got to see him on a non-normal day to make decisions. We normally only saw him on Wed when labs were drawn but Mark was so sick we saw Mon and Wed one week. I guess I would want to have a doc around with the infusion in case something goes wrong….Mark had anaphylaxsis to the oxaliplantin the last infusion. It was scary and I was glad there were docs close.
Julie – I know you will make the best decision for you on this. Go with your gut, it’s usually right.

KrisV

Hi, Peter,
it is the oral form of 5FU,on par in effectiveness(20-23%) with gemcitabline for cholangiocarcinoma(CCA) with or without cisplatin combination. it is somehow ,for unknown reasons, works better in extrahepatic CCA than intrahepatic CCA.
side effects are minimum.
depends on what your doctor thinks the dose can be higher(ie: 1500-2000mg twice a day[2weeks on and one week off] or 1000mg twice a day 5days on,2days off).
Xeloda ,if it works, can reduce the size of the CCA or slow the growth of the tumor to buy time and have some quality of life . I am in stage 4 with lymph mets, I am on 1gm Xeloda twice a day to slow the growth of the CCA.it will buy me some quality time if it works. I have been on Xeloda for 3 months now.what stage you are on? any mets to other organs or lymph nodes.

if interest, below is a general view about chemotherapy.

http://www.cholangiocarcinoma.org/punbb/viewtopic.php?pid=57198#p57198

God bless.

Hi Vince –
Welcome to our little family. Many of us have been in the same boat with making that decision. My husband was diagnosed in May 2013 with perihilar CC with surgery in June 2013. His tumor was 2 x 3 x 2 with one positive node out of seven and clean surgical margins on the second try.They did find some invasion along the nerves and lymph system too. We opted to do 6 months (12 treatments of Gemcitabine/Oxaliplatin) then just finished 25 doses of IMRT with 5FU infusion. We chose to go that route based on our ONC recommendations due to the concerns over spread.
Our doc said he basis his recommendations on four questions: How big the tumor was, clean wound margins or not, any metastasis and the differentiation of the cancer (how much the cancer cells are like the original cells). According to him they considered his rather large, clean margins but on second try, positive node and moderately differentiated so that was two for chemo, one so-so and one against it.
We went for it because my husband wanted to give every chance there is to beat the cancer and not have it come back. But not to say that there are times he wished he has skipped it all….especially right now since he is ill from the chemoradiation he just finished.
Hope this helps.

KrisV

Iowagirl,

All I can tell you is my experience with the gemcitibine/cisplatin regime. I did four rounds of once a week for two weeks and then a week off. Then, my doctor felt I did so well, he wanted me to move to radiation (my tumor isn’t operable … yet), which changed my chemo combo – the gemcitibine reacts too strongly to radiation, so I started getting cisplatin once a week and 5FU (an infusion pump I wore M-F) throughout my 30 days of radiation.

I didn’t lose any hair and, in fact, I was told that few people do with gem/cis. One nurse told me my hair might thin, but if it did, it was not noticable. In fact, a friend made the comment after I finished both the gem/cis cycles and then 30 days of radiation and the different chemo that I still had thicker hair than she did. But, you know, I’d gladly shave my head if it meant I could have resection surgery.

What I did notice was that the hair I had hardly grew while I was doing chemo. What I was told was that hair cells are fast growing cells and chemo targets fast growing cells. This meant I could go longer between haircuts (yay, less $$$) and hardly had to shave my legs or under my arms, which I took as a big bonus. Too bad it wasn’t shorts and bare legged weather.

I had minimal nausea (like one night a week, usually about day 3 after chemo) and if I had been better at taking my anti-nausea drugs before I felt sick, that might have been different.

They gave me a steroid in IV form during chemo, so I always felt GREAT the day of chemo. Felt like I had a lot of energy that day. My worst was feeling draggy, usually about 3 days after chemo and that lasted a day or so. Even with that, I continued to work full time, but I did arrange to work from home two days a week and there were a few days I curled up in bed with my laptop and a couple where I might have dozed off during the day. But not many. If you can, force yourself to get some exercise, even walking helps!

My biggest issue was the change in taste and the fact nothing sounded good to me to eat. Everything tasted off. And, there were certain foods I could not stand to smell as they were cooking – fish and broccoli, primarily. My husband would cook dinner and I’d have to go upstairs and away from the kitchen. I had to force myself to eat some days and I definitely lost weight. I asked my oncologist yesterday about when my taste would come back (I finished radiation and chemo a week ago) and he said a few more weeks.

Hoping you sail through chemo with little or no side affects.

Lisa

PS: It’s interesting how different places do things differently. I just read what Kris wrote. While I was prescribed zofran (anti-nausea), that was the only thing I was prescribed. Everything else was given to me the day of chemo.

I can’t really comment on the driving versus staying in an apartment. There are a lot of people who drive several hours to be treated where I am (Baylor Hospital in Dallas), but I live, literally, about 8 blocks from the hospital. I never imagined when I bought this house 13 years ago that I’d be so grateful to live so near to a major teaching hospital with a major cancer center, that sees a lot of cholangiocarcinoma. You can always give driving a try and if it’s hard, change your plans. I know Baylor has both a hotel and rents apartments that are walking distance to the hospital for patients and their families.

PSS: I found I was really sore after getting my port in. I had a hard time lifting my arm for a few days after it was put in. That surprised me. Although, I really didn’t know what to expect at the time – everything was happening so fast immediately post-diagnosis and I had a blockage that required immediate surgery – they did the port the same time they did my gastroj surgery. But, like you, I like to know what I’m getting into, so don’t be surprised at that.

Julie –
You sound like me. I hate the unknown. I want everything laid out and know exactly what is going on. The first chemo is always scary. I do know that everyone responds differently to the chemo. Mark did Gem and Oxaliplatin and did great through it where the 5FU we just finished wiped him out. He would say that he was mostly tired especially towards the end. The immune system part we didn’t have a lot of problems with. His white count stayed up and we had our toddler grandson living with us and bringing all kinds of yuck home from daycare and Mark only got sick once.
One thing you shouldn’t have with the Gem/Cis is the cold sensitivity that comes with the Ox. That was annoying for both of us.
Generally with my patients and with Mark too, they feel pretty good the day of chemo because of the fluids and the premeds. Some will feel a varying range from kind of mild flu-like symptoms to feeling really bad…..it just depends. One thing I will say though is if they give you a schedule to take medications after chemo follow it. Mark took Zofran twice daily and Dexamethsone twice daily after chemo for two days then prochlorperazine as needed every 6 hours and Lorazepam as needed. We really followed the directions and had little problems.
As far as traveling, we have a 4 hour round trip every time we go for chemo or radiation (I put 15,000 miles on my car this last year driving for just the cancer). Mark traveled well. We have a “bucket” of essentials that we carried such as extra meds (nausea, pain), baby wipes to clean up, towels, gatorade, water, etc but never really used much of it.
I think the traveling versus staying home decision is tough. I guess it depends on where you feel most comfortable. We considered a hotel while doing his 25 treatments of daily radiation but opted for the drive so he could be home which is what he wanted.

Good luck with your decision. I know you will make the right one for you.

KrisV

Chrisna –
My husband too had surgery…almost a year ago now. We were told that we were the lucky ones and has been said, it’s the only chance at a cure. There is a lot of debate about to do or not to do adjuvant chemo after the surgery. My husband chose not only chemo for 6 months but also 25 doses of radiation along with 5FU chemo. Our Onc felt it was the best shot at a long term remission or “cure”.
Right now his quality of life is not all that great due to the effects of the chemoradiation but prior to that he was working full-time and you would not know he was or had been sick. And once he recovers from this recent round of stuff I suspect the same will be true.
Surgery is rough. His was 14 hours and he was 12 days in the hospital and he didn’t return to work until September last year but he was working full time and feeling fine.
And just because surgery is recommended, it doesn’t have to be done. I am sure there are those who chose not to, just as some don’t do chemo or any other treatment.
Good luck with the 2nd opinion.

KrisV

My father was on gem/cis and then they found some nodules on his omentum. They continued the gem/cis then did a scan. The nodules grew and they saw others. The switched him to oxaliplatin and 5FU.

Their thought was that since some grew they were becoming resistant to the gem/cis.