Effects Of Gemcitabine

Hello All,

My mother has gallbladder cancer stage 4. Her tumor marker improved from over 1000 cells to 200. She had her 1st round of radiation with a combination of xeloda.

Now she started last week on gemcitabine. She has been feeling worse on this drug. Can anyone tell me the adverse side effects of this drug versus xeloda? What she can do to reduce the side effects?

Thanks,

Ariela

I don't know what side effects your mother has. But my wife generally takes EMEND one hour before the infusion and then one tablet for each of two days. Side effects minimal. Last week, no Emend was taken with Gemcitibine and she felt really miserable.Took a tablet that evening and things improved. Hope this is of help to your mother.

On 8/1/2007 Arielahlibby wrote:

Hello All,

My mother has gallbladder cancer stage 4. Her tumor marker improved from over 1000 cells to 200. She had her 1st round of radiation with a combination of xeloda.

Now she started last week on gemcitabine. She has been feeling worse on this drug. Can anyone tell me the adverse side effects of this drug versus xeloda? What she can do to reduce the side effects?

Thanks,

Ariela

Hi, This is a late reply, but I hope to hear how you're doing now.  My mom is on Gemzar and Xeloda now for a month.  She gets an anti nausea medication in her IV before she takes Gemzar and that has kept the nausea at bay.  However, one of these drugs is simply wiping her out.  She has little to no energy.  She takes the drugs every other week and her first 'off week' was better than the current one.  I wonder if the effects of the drugs are compiling over time and her body just can't recover before the next round maybe.  The other hard thing has been general digestion.  Either she's constipated and crampy or has diarrhea.  This doesn't help in trying to lift her spirits or get her out of the house because she always wants to stay close to the bathroom.  I'm very proud of her though.  She hates pills and in the course of the last year she's gone from taking no pills to taking almost 10 a day for everything from High Blood Pressure (she had a quad bypass last July) to Chemo drugs. 

The oncologist is using her CA19-9 number to decide on progress and if she can be a candidate for radiation.  She had a resection in December 2007 where they hoped to remove everything but found it had spread into the vessels that feed her liver.  They couldn't remove this.  Follow up CT scans don't show any cancer but we know it's in there.

Please let us know how you're doing now with the drugs and if you've found anything helpful or if you have new questions.

Hope to hear from you soon,

Momhasgbc 

Here's the update you requested. My wife started out on Gemcitibine plus Xeloda, two cycles, The side effects were minimal,  then moved on to radiation radiation. Two weeks after completion of radiation she had a remarkable 50% shrinkage in tumors, but with some more spread. Back again to the previous chemo wiht no improvement. Now she's on a second line of chemo agents - carboplatin and inotecan - these are more potent and tougher to take. In several weeks, a CT scan will hopefully show good results. Her blood profile has been very good.

As for stomach distress which she had, she switched her diet to 'non-residual' foods, that is no bran with reliance on white rice and rice products such as crackers and noodles. Added to this, tofu (silken), soy milk, eggs etc. Bland foods in general. This has helped considerably. 

If you need more info let me know. I wish you well.

Thank you so much for the update.  It's been hard to find someone in the same situation as we are, but it's helpful to hear from you and know that we are not alone.

What type of tests does your wife take to detect where the cancer has moved/shrunk/etc?  Is it just a CT scan or does she also do a PET scan or anything else?  Does her doctor use the CA19-9 as well? 

We have what we believe to be a very good doctor, but we haven't gone for second opinions and I don't want to be lulled into complacency because we like our doctor so much.  The fact that we can't even see the cancer on her CT scan but we know it's there concerns me that it could have moved to other places, but it's just not showing up in a CT.

Thanks again!

Momhasgbc