judip
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My brother lost his brave fight with CC on Monday. We are all devastated and I hope for the strength to especially help my mother who is distraught beyond belief.
COngratulations Kristin! I hope everything goes well for you with the chemo should that be the next mode of treatment for you. Good luck with your CT scans…
Here is our experience thus far with that combo chemo.
My brother started on gemcitabine and oxaliplatin when his CC was diagnosed as inoperable back in November. He continued Dec 2010 through Jun on the treatments which shrunk the tumors in his lung and liver quite substanially and were not even seen anymore in the lymph. His tumor marker over that time decreased from 1571 to 99. He recently changed to gemcitabine alone just this month when the neuropathy got a little too much to take but otherwise has been doing well with little other adverse effects.
He entered the hospital last night due to stomach pains which was diagnosed as gall bladder inflammation. We wait to hear if he needs it to be removed or just antibiotics continued for now. I was just online trying to find out more information about gall bladder procedures before I go back to the hospital this morning.
MY brother also uses EMLA cream, puts it on and around his port about 45min-1 hour before chemo starts and puts plastic wrap on to keep it on and he has had god luck with his. They do not access the port for blood, they use a vein for that. ALso, he is on 2 days chemo back to back so when they access it the 1st day, they keep it in, cover it lightly with a bandage and then it is already accessed the next day.
Well, I think my research is over for the time being!!! I have started my brother on the Super Bio-Curcumin capsule (once daily) and Siliphos (milk thistle – more bioavailable silybin) (once daily). I asked him to use them on all days except for those when he receives chemo (gemcitabine and oxaliplatin) and for 2 days afterwards. From what I have read these do not appear to interfere with his particular chemo and the oncologist also gave his ok.
If he tolerates these 2 well over the next 3 weeks, I plan to add Vitamin C (1000mg), Vitamin E (400 IU)and fish oil (1000mg…300mg omega-3) when I see him next in the beginning of March. In addition to good nutrition, I’m hoping that all of this helps.
I have found 1 source of curcumin using nanosphere technology from Life Enhancement (NanoCurcuminoids, 100 mg). However, there is not much evidence in the way of how much actually is bioavailable from this source except that they state “may be equivalent to as much as 1000 mg of a typical 95% curcumin extract.” I was looking for a product to deliver a higher dosage with fewer capsules and there is no evidence that this product has greater bioavailability than another product they sell: Super Bio-Curcumin which is listed as having 400mg mg capsule “equivalent to 2,772 mg of a typical 95% curcumin extract. ” and this is supported by at least 1 clinical study on bioavailability in India. Curcumin has been shown in in vitro studies to enhance the efficacy of gemcitabine and oxaliplatin (both chemo meds my brother is taking) in pancreatic/colon cancer cell lines. Also, there is an ongoing clinical trial in patients with pancreatic cancer taking gemzar plus curcumin (high dose 8g/day) that was supposed to conclude in 2005 but is still recruiting. Preliminary results presented in 2008 showed 5 of 11 either had stable disease or partial response and 6 had tumor progression…not great results but the group was small and I hold out even a little hope.
Can anyone tell me how they decide when to take scans after chemo. My brother has completed 3 cycles of gem/ox and the oncologist is not planning to do a CT scan for at least 2-3 more cycles. Also, have they done both CT with PET? Thanks
Why did you decide on those supplements? My brother has CC, diagnosed in November 2009 and is currently undergoing chemo with gemcitabine and oxaliplatin. I’ve been looking through the medical literature without coming out with a definitive answer. Thanks so much
Thank you both Marion and Julia. I want to hear about the successes! I’m glad Julia that your sister is coping better on the gem cis.
My brother is scheduled (local oncologist) for gem-oxaliplatin…I’m wondering why not cisplatin because when I asked him last week about that combination he said he was going to order just gem?! hmm! I’ll have to ask the oncologist at Dana Farber.
Hello all! Thank you for your posts and words of encouragement. We are going to Dana Farber to meet with a medical oncologist on Wednesday. She will be the 2nd opinion after we went to Memorial Sloan Kettering and got the official diagnosis. I’m not counting the local medical oncologist who saw him and is prescribing Gem treatment alone to start next Monday.
I have seen the UK abstract presented at ASCO this past May showing that, in their study, gem-cis combination patients had a longer overall survival time than gem alone, albeit not much (3 months) but I’ll take all I can get.
Sometimes I think it is unfortunate that I am a PhD scientist because I understand the study results and I’m trying to interpret them as optimistically as I can to my brother. I don’t want him to give up and try to give him as much hope as possible but he gets so depressed when he does not hear positive news.
