Doxil Treatment

My wife is beginnig chemotherapy treatment with Doxil. Previously, she has undergone infusions with Taxol and Carboplatin; however, her cancer always returned after short periods of remission. My mission is to provide her the best support possible. I don't really know what to expect as this is our first experience with Doxil. I would appreciate any input regarding the effects of this drug following first infusion; in short, what should I look for and how can I best prepare to provide care for my Doxil patient. Many thanks.

Mike Indiana

Hi Mike,

I was on Doxil for 5 treatments and had to stop because it stopped working. I had the worse side effects from it. Your wife's ca 125 will probably go up until the 3rd or 4th round of Doxil so don't be alarmed. Be very careful of wearing anything that rubs, no bra, hot water, heat from cooking and all the things that can cause the rash and hand/foot syndrome. I had a bad sunburn effect under my arms , that cracked and peeled. It was really bad. Also, had a bad rash on my thighs. The Gyn/Onc finally prescribed Prednisone for me. I could only take a tepid bath or shower. I use to ice my hands and feet during infusion and suck on ice chips. Thank God I never got the hand and foot syndrome. Also the original Eurcerin Creme worked the best for me, along with bag balm. As for it working, I heard a lot of good results , it has put women in remission for a long time, unfortunately that wasn't the case for me. I am a stage 3c and now am on Gemzar.

I hope this chemo kicks its butt.

Hugs N Prayers, Terry

 

On 5/2/2009 ladyjogger31 wrote:

Hi Mike,

I was on Doxil for 5 treatments and had to stop because it stopped working. I had the worse side effects from it. Your wife's ca 125 will probably go up until the 3rd or 4th round of Doxil so don't be alarmed. Be very careful of wearing anything that rubs, no bra, hot water, heat from cooking and all the things that can cause the rash and hand/foot syndrome. I had a bad sunburn effect under my arms , that cracked and peeled. It was really bad. Also, had a bad rash on my thighs. The Gyn/Onc finally prescribed Prednisone for me. I could only take a tepid bath or shower. I use to ice my hands and feet during infusion and suck on ice chips. Thank God I never got the hand and foot syndrome. Also the original Eurcerin Creme worked the best for me, along with bag balm. As for it working, I heard a lot of good results , it has put women in remission for a long time, unfortunately that wasn't the case for me. I am a stage 3c and now am on Gemzar.

I hope this chemo kicks its butt.

Hugs N Prayers, Terry

Thanks, Terry.

Thank you for your note! I'm sorry you had such a tough time with Doxil. We have been fighting this for four years now and, hopefully, we'll have a better time of it. I'll let you know how it goes.

Thanks, again.

Blessings,

Mike

My sister has been fighting ovarian cancer for 17 years and has been on every drug there is.  She did get the rash on her hands and feet when she was on Doxil.  She put her feet and hands in ice water when she was getting the treatment and that stopped it, like Terry said.  She was on it for about 14 months, as long as you can be, I think due to heart side effects. She never had heart problems, but that is one of the side effects and a reason that you can't take it indefinitely. It stabilized the cancer for about 10 months and then quit working.  I would also recommend following a cancer diet - no sugar, etc.  I really think that makes a difference.  My sister has very advanced recurrent cancer now and all she eats is sugar - it fuels the cancer and people with active cancer can have strong sugar cravings because of it.Good luck to you and your wife.

Thank you for your response. From what I can gather, Doxil simply buys time, about a year at best, but does nothing to eliminate the disease. I am left to wonder if its worth it?

Thanks, again.

Mike

Hi Mike-

My 47 yr old girlfriend Pam (StageIII B OVA with liver mets), went through the Carbo/Taxol chemo, then she went to Doxil- she never did get the hand/foot syndrome, but got mild mouth sores and some skin dryness. After that didn't seem to help her, they switched her to Taxotere, same result. I DO want to tell you about the head of the Todd Cancer Center in Long Beach, where she got treatment. With us, it was not so much an issue to try the different chemos, but to try to find the one chemo that was most effective. As you probably have found out, the oncologists have their LIST in order of their familiarity and researched effectiveness, so they start at the top of the list and go down, each time they need to try something else. We met a Dr. Nagourney, the Dr I referred to above, who volunteered to take Pam as a patient for a test his company runs- they test your actual cancer cells- from body fluid or biopsy fluid, and run tests with different chemo agents to find the one that works best without the hit-and-miss of the "list". Pam didn't have time left to try his regimen, but if we had that was the next step. Chemo just seems too rough on the body to not know which will work best on the cancer. You can certainly look online and "google" Dr. Nagourney to check on this if you want. I don't know what part of the country you live in, but we were going to UPS or Fed-Ex the sample (certain method) so I guess it wouldn't matter where you live, or in fact, there must be other Drs. around the country that do this kind of testing. He was charging about $500 for the consult, but he had said he would take her at no charge. Good luck and as a fellow caregiver and one who went through all the good and the bad and the horrible, I will be here to answer all that I can. Even though everyone's cancer is unique, there are still commonalities like fear, pain, uncertainty and all those appts and tests. In my prayers,

Rick

 

On 5/2/2009 ladyjogger31 wrote:

Hi Mike,

I was on Doxil for 5 treatments and had to stop because it stopped working. I had the worse side effects from it. Your wife's ca 125 will probably go up until the 3rd or 4th round of Doxil so don't be alarmed. Be very careful of wearing anything that rubs, no bra, hot water, heat from cooking and all the things that can cause the rash and hand/foot syndrome. I had a bad sunburn effect under my arms , that cracked and peeled. It was really bad. Also, had a bad rash on my thighs. The Gyn/Onc finally prescribed Prednisone for me. I could only take a tepid bath or shower. I use to ice my hands and feet during infusion and suck on ice chips. Thank God I never got the hand and foot syndrome. Also the original Eurcerin Creme worked the best for me, along with bag balm. As for it working, I heard a lot of good results , it has put women in remission for a long time, unfortunately that wasn't the case for me. I am a stage 3c and now am on Gemzar.

I hope this chemo kicks its butt.

Hugs N Prayers, Terry

Hi Terry,

I've had 4 treatments of Doxil as the first round of carbo/taxol only worked for me for 6 months.  I haven't had any of the side effects that you say you've gotten but I just found out that the tumor that came back has grown a bit.  So now I go for a cat scan on June 15th I guess to measure it and see what the next step will be.  I would prefer Doxil over anything because of the side effects being so miniimal for me.  I'm sorry you had all of those problems.  I just want this to go away so I can live my life in as normal a way as possible.  I get very depressed with going back and forth to doctors, blood work, etc. but I have no choice.  I have to fight this.   I've been having a rought time with depression and my surgeon suggested a support group or counseling but I have a support group around me all the time.   I don't think I need counseling I just have to snap out of the funk I'm in and continue to fight like I did the first time around.  I guess I thought Doxil would be the answer but it isn't.   Good luck to you and I wish you a long healthy life.  Michele

Hi Mike

I did the first round of carbo/taxol and was in remission just about 6 months.  The tumor came back so they started me on Doxil.  I'm sure by now your wife has had a few treatments.  I didn't really get any side effects from the drug except that my taste buds are awful and food isn't good to me anymore.  Finding it hard to drink things too that I like.  But I prefer Doxil over the previous treatment.  The fatigue is minimal for me and so far so good without any skin conditions from it.  But now my tumor has grown a bit so they're going to probably change the protocol.   I wish you a lot of luck with your wife and I hope it works for her.  We have to keep fighting this thing.  It's hard at times.  I've been very depressed these days but you have to stay strong.  Michele

I read online the other day that the cancer feeding off sugar myth is only a myth and not true.   Cancer does not feed off of sugar.  If it did I would have cancer throughout my whole body.  I did stop eating a lot of sugar since I've been diagnosed with OVA Stage IIIC but it doesn't matter.  Only a myth.  I wish you all the best of luck and I pray that your sister gets relief from all that she's gone through.  Michele

I was diagnosed 5 years ago this month (age 56) with 3C Ovarian cancer.  After debulking surgery I received carbo/taxol (8 treatments once every 6 weeks) and was in remission 24 months.  The tumor marker hit 250 so they started me on Doxil once every 4 weeks. I had very minimal side affects and was on Doxil for 2 & 1/4 years.  My tumor marker was rising and when it got to 220 they put me back on carbo and after two treatments the marker was down to 84.7.  I have been very lucky that the chemo treatments have worked very well for me.  I go to work every day and live life to the fullest.  I just came accross a great saying.  "Just because you're not going to win the race, you don't stop running".  They will find a cure for this one day or a way to stop its growth so never stop running.  I was told that with some of the new drugs I could live at least another 10 years.  God Bless and never give up hope!!

Patt