Treatment Options For Stage Iii - Biochemo Vs. Interferon

Hello

I am wondering if there is any advice for treatment options for stage III melanoma. I am 29 and in good health (minus of course, the cancer) and will be going in for surgery this week for my lymph node dissection in my groin area. I have met with doctors in NY and in Denver. Denver has offered a BioChemotherapy regiment that I cannot find much else on and it seems to be one of the few places offered in the country. However, the anecdotal evidence they provided was promising (approx 80% 5 year survival vs approx 60% for interferon alone for stage III).

Anyone who has any information on BioChemotherapy or has been through it, I would love to hear.

Bio-Chemo is a combination of chemo drugs, generally 5, Dr's choice, administered at once.

Interferon is a single chemo, sometimes used as one of five in the Bio-Chemo theapry.

BioChemo is harder theapry, generally in the hopsital 1 week for treatment, 2 weeks off, then repeat, for 6/7 months, Doctors call..  You hate to use this saying, however no pain, no gain. 

On 9/19/2007 Wetterhorn wrote:

Hello

I am wondering if there is any advice for treatment options for stage III melanoma. I am 29 and in good health (minus of course, the cancer) and will be going in for surgery this week for my lymph node dissection in my groin area. I have met with doctors in NY and in Denver. Denver has offered a BioChemotherapy regiment that I cannot find much else on and it seems to be one of the few places offered in the country. However, the anecdotal evidence they provided was promising (approx 80% 5 year survival vs approx 60% for interferon alone for stage III).

Anyone who has any information on BioChemotherapy or has been through it, I would love to hear.

Thanks for posting. Yesterday I was diagnosed with Stage III. I'm going in in a couple of days to have 10-15 more lymph nodes removed in my armpit. I'm 38 yrs old. Father of 3. Pretty ticked off and a bit scared I've got this, but going to fight for every day I can. I haven't picked  a treatment, but my surgeon at Stanford recommended interferon. I've read more success stories on BioChemo and am curious what you chose and your thoughts? 

thx,

Scott

(in California) 

Scott,

Sorry to hear the news, first off; no other way to say it accept it sucks. I was diagnosed back in August and had my wide area excision and lymph node biopsy shortly thereafter. 1 node came back positive. After this first surgery, I went out and received 4 opinions (NY Presbyterian recommended interferon, Univ of Colorado Health Sciences in Denver recommended BioChemo; a local oncologist in Boulder, Co recommended interferon and Sloan Kettering in NYC was pushing vaccine treatment via a clinical trial).

I ended up going with Interferon, and am now in my 4th month of treatment. It was not an easy decision as there seemed to be a wide variety of opinions with little agreement between each doctor I saw. After my meeting with Rene Gonzalez in Denver, I was convinced that BioChemo was the way to go based on survival stats. However, the 3 other doctors I saw were adamantly opposed to this method, citing statistics that show biochemo and/or chemo do not provide better cure rates. Statistics can be very misleading and after the 4th meeting I felt that each visit was simply a sales pitch to get treatment. Make sure to do your due diligence when evaluating statistics.

While the stats with interferon are not great, they are the most complete out there. I had to rely on anecdotal evidence in regards to BioChemo treatment, which I felt was not enough. Two of my doctors also said BioChemo could do more harm than good as the treatment greatly weakens the immune system, which is the best defense against this disease. It is a very demanding treatment option. Vaccine treatment was ruled out as too experimental and very little evidence it helped. There is also GM-CSF treatment that was mentioned, but not a lot was known about this option by any of my doctors. I did feel that systemic treatment was needed, so that left interferon almost by default.

I also spoke with a few family friends that went thru Interferon treatment option. One was a complete responder to Interferon (ie, tumor disappeared when he was on it), so I know that it can work.

I opted to get my lymph nodes removed in October (nodes came back clean),  and began Interferon treatment in Nov. A daily IV for 4 weeks and now 3 self injections/week. I was able to work about half speed thru the first month of treatment and am now basically leading my normal life again. Changed lifestyle a little bit, trying to eat a more alkaline diet (fruits/veggies) and juicing fresh veggies daily, trying to avoid red meat and alcohol (but not all the time) as well and taking some supplements.

I hope this was helpful and best of luck with your decision.