A Daughter Need Advice For His Recurrent Hodgkins Father

HELLO THERE,

My father had hodgkins 2A in 2003,he took combination chemotherapy for 6months & recovered.now he is having same symptoms & after CTSCAN doctors have detected that it might have reoccur.the surgical biopsy has shown that it is located on pancreatic head reagion.the reports of biopsy r about to come in few days.My whole family is very depressed especially my father is in great shock.he is feeling very weak.p

please advice what course of treatment we should do if Hodgkins has reoccured.i really need ur help & i want to emotionallay support my family.

I am not a doctor, but my second treatment regimine was a Stem Cell Transplant (autologous).

I am currently undergoing trial - MDX60 with Gemcitibine.

And oh yes, give it to God and let him take care of it. 

Hi there - 

I can't help you with treatment options, but what I can tell you is that this disease is treatable and cureable!  I was diagnosed with Stage 2 Hodgkin's Lymphoma in 1989 and underwent 2 months of radiation treatment after all the staging operations.  I have been cancer free since then, in generally good health, have run 6 marathons and for the past 7 years I've been doing triathlons. 

So don't despair and don't give up!  The treatments are improving, survival rates are getting better, and quality of life is increasing for survivors!  God bless you and your family!

I had HD stage 3b also in 2003. I took 7 cycles (14 treatments) of ABVD Chemo.

In July of this year a biopsy confirmed it had returned (Stage 2a). My doctor strongly suggested Stem Cell Transplant with high dose Chemo. I was sent to MDAnderson where I have started the process.

I have a lot of hope and prayers for this procedure.

Please let me know how the treatment is going as I have heard about the drug and I believe it was in the Phase I clinical trial at this time. Would like to hear what all is involved with the process for the trial. Wish you the very best in the success of your treatment!

mdx 060 is an antibody.  the gemzar is a chemo.  the problem with the gemzar is that the platlet counts drops fast.  unfortunately this means you usually cant take the whole cycle (3 wks gemzar and 060, 1 week 060)  for this reason the treatment did not put my hd in full remission, it simply put it in stable disease condition. but this is okay because it did not spread to any other areas.  I had 8 weeks of gemzar alone and 12 weeks of gemzar and antibody.  I am currently awaiting a new trial which should begin within the next 30-60 days. I do not have the name of the new trial to date but I know that it is given in 3 days and then 14 days off and then another cycle.  I am anxiously awaiting information on this protocol.

How is your father? I hope things are going well.