Revlimid/Increase Steroids Vs. Revlimid/Velcade

Hi,

My mom has been on 25mg of revlimid. It did wonders for her condition but the side effects included repressed bone marrow so they lowered it to 15. She's not only on the revlimid but also on 40mg of dexamethasone every week.

Her proteins have started to increase so her doctor has suggested increasing the dexamethasone to 40mg 4 times a day. My mother is afraid to do this because when she was on thalidomide it made her psychotic. She wanted me to post here and ask if anyone as experienced increased proteins on revlmid and what their doctor did as a result.

Also has anybody here gone through or know of someone who has been treated with revlimid/velcade. If so, what were the doses and the outcome?

Thanks much for reading this.

From Anna,

 Hi MotherwMyeloma, Dad has taken both of these but not together I don't think. As for the protein they are trying to get it down.  I posted a bunch of links about Multiply Myeloma.  Did you see that topic.  Go to them to and you might find some answer.  The Dex and everything does all kinds of things to everyone.  Hope I helped a little.

 Your friend,

 Anna

Good Evening MWM;

"Also has anybody here gone through or know of someone who has been treated with revlimid/velcade. If so, what were the doses and the outcome?"

I've been on Rev/Vel/Dex. I'm away from my notes but I believe the dosage was Rev-25 mg, Vel-1.0, Dex 40 mg. You can check the archives here at CC for more accurate data. I suffered no side effects and it lowered my cancer counts as low as they were going to get.

Take care;

Kevin

 

On 3/27/2008 MotherWMyeloma wrote:

Hi,

My mom has been on 25mg of revlimid. It did wonders for her condition but the side effects included repressed bone marrow so they lowered it to 15. She's not only on the revlimid but also on 40mg of dexamethasone every week.

Her proteins have started to increase so her doctor has suggested increasing the dexamethasone to 40mg 4 times a day. My mother is afraid to do this because when she was on thalidomide it made her psychotic. She wanted me to post here and ask if anyone as experienced increased proteins on revlmid and what their doctor did as a result.

Also has anybody here gone through or know of someone who has been treated with revlimid/velcade. If so, what were the doses and the outcome?

Thanks much for reading this.

Dear MotherWMyeloma,

My father is going on exactly the same regimen:   Revlimid plus low dose dex (once a week).

First of all, Dex is a steroid, not a thalidomide, so she should not worry about having a Thal reaction to Dexamethasone.

But more importantly, a very crucial study released in the summer of 2007 demonstrated that MM patients did much better on Rev plus low dose Dex as opposed to Rev plus high dose Dex.    This was a crucial finding.

What was her induction therapy?   Has she tried a Velcade combination?  Or did she go straight onto Rev/Dex?

Also, does she have "high risk" myeloma or any risk factors for a fast relapse, such as any chromosomal issues that you are aware of? 

Mike