Y90 Treatment and chemotherapy

Aana,

We did see some shrinkage on the first scan (about 4 weeks in), but more on the one 3 months later And with my mother’s tumor (only one), it was never a round mass,but instead very misshapen so that on one report they had a hard time with actual dimensions. There was also a point where it had not shrunk much, but some of what they were measuring was dead tumor. Even now, there is an approx 2 x 3 cm area of dead tumor tissue (necrotic). We also had areas in the earlier results where the doctor said some of what they were seeing could be inflammation. I guess it wasn’t until they brought up the results and moved it around showing different glimpses and angles of Mom’s tumor on the screen that I realized what a mess it was and that dependent on the person reading the results, they would easily report different “measurements”.

The last round, Mom was extremely fatigued for at least 6 weeks, but pain wasn’t very bad for that long (besides adhesion pain which seems to be getting worse from 2013 surgery).

We only had problems with eating when she was on chemo and then she would like egg salad, mashed potatoes, jello- or whatever sounded appealing we would get. Many here mention carnation instant breakfast and other supplements.

I hope your Mom starts feeling better soon.

Catherine

Hi,

My mother has had great results with the Y90 (you can see my recent post under good news).

She first had 3 cycles of Gem/CIS in and then her first Y90 in Feb 2014. Although it worked well and had a nice treatment free break for 6 months, we decided to do it again with the hope of killing the whole tumor and the left lobe of the liver rather than just shrinking it.

For the second Y90, they put her on xeloda two weeks ahead, one week off, and then two weeks after. They said that the chemo makes the tumor absorb even more of the radiation. We also felt good in case there was anything that had started to spread but was too small to show on the CT.

I’m sorry I don’t know about the gemzar- we haven’t tried that yet. At the appointment yesterday, they decided against maintenance chemo since based on what can show in CT and PET, she has no viable cancer showing. When did you Mom have the Y90? We were told that it continues to work for a few months afterwards.

Best of luck,
Catherine

Aanar, if you enter the treatments like Y90 one at a time in to the search engine at the top of the page, lots of posts will come up on those subjects. Best of Luck!