Alternative Therapy

I am 64 years old. diagnosed april 07 with stage 4 kidney cancer,had right radical nephectomy in aug 07; have had no conventional treatment of any kind. Did 8 weeks treatment at tha IAT clinic in the bahamas, Came home with 4 months supply of treatment .will go back in april for 2 weeks,

What I wish to know is .How bad are the side effects from sutent.Can you go on 37,5 right away or do you have to sart at 50 mg. PLease describe the effects for me, I am so undecided,

Thank you Carol

On 3/6/2008 bobtail wrote:

I am 64 years old. diagnosed april 07 with stage 4 kidney cancer,had right radical nephectomy in aug 07; have had no conventional treatment of any kind. Did 8 weeks treatment at tha IAT clinic in the bahamas, Came home with 4 months supply of treatment .will go back in april for 2 weeks,

What I wish to know is .How bad are the side effects from sutent.Can you go on 37,5 right away or do you have to sart at 50 mg. PLease describe the effects for me, I am so undecided,

Thank you Carol

Carol,

My doctor started me on 25mg. of sutent. I have very few side effects. My finger nails are brittle and always cracking and breaking. I also have diahrea, but I can control it with immondium. I have had only one cycle of the drug. We plan on increasing the dose to 37.5 mg. after one more cycle of 25mg. I had some pretty bad side effects with nexavar and torisel, so the oncologist is being careful. Of course the trade off is the chance that the drug will not work very well at a low dose.

Alot of people seem to get sores and peeling on their hands and feet, sores in their mouths, high blood pressure and heart problems. Alot of people seem to tolerate the drug very well, even  50mg. So, I guess it all depends on the person.

Best of luck.

Richard

My dad has been on sutent now for over a year, started on the 50mg but his platelets got too low after about a month, so he was changed to 37.5mg and has been on that dose since. He currently takes 37.5mg every single day, no breaks, and his side effects are minimal.  His sense of taste is altered a little, and he has occasional foot pain. His blood pressure recently was a little high, but now is controlled with a low dose of medication (hctz). He gets a little tired sometimes, but not enough to keep him from working 40+ hours/week and he lives a basically normal life. I know some people have more side effects, but hopefully you will not have too rough of a time. I've heard that the side effects from sutent are often less severe than those of other treatments.