Chemotherapy With Taxol and Carboplatin

Hi, my father (stage 4 lung cancer) is going to start daily radiation for seven weeks and at the same time once a week chemotherapy with taxol and carboplatin. They told us this is a very agressive treatment and I was wondering if anyone has had chemo with those medicines that maybe could shed some light as to how hard it is. Right know my mother is the only one with him, and my brothers and I are going to take turns visiting but it is really difficult to leave and accompany them as we live in Honduras and he is going to have his treatment in Florida. If you have information please write back. Thanks, Mary

Mary, I was diagnosed with stage 3b in July, 2005. They had just approved Tarceva do be used in the initial cycles of chemo. Up until then you had to have failed at least one cycle. I was not a candidate for radiation or surgery. After four cycles I am in 100% remission I had no side effects. You might want to ask your oncologist about Tarceva. Ernie

I am going to talk to my parents about tarceva, I have read in the message board about it, and Ive seen it has helped a lot of people. Thanks, and congratulationa on being cancer free. Mary

Mary, I thought you might want to know what else I did to fight my cancer, all with the approval of my oncolegist. My chemo was Carboplatin, Taxol, once a week, 3 weeks on 1 week off along with 100mg of Tarceva once a day. Supplements taken during cycle 1 and cycle 2 of chemo: 2 grams AHCC 3 times a day between meals, 10mg melatonin before bed, 100mg CoQ10 breakfast and dinner, 1 tab Centrum Silver breakfast, 500mg Calcium breakfast and dinner, 4 tab Citrucel breakfast and dinner, 2 cap Cardio-Edge breakfast and dinner, 1 cap Policosanol breakfast and dinner. Added after first 2 cycles taken with cycle 3 and 4 and still do, but not within 24 hours of chemo. 500mg Green Tea, 100mg Gape seed extract, 320mg Garlic, 30mg zinc, 100mg B-6, all taken with breakfast. Foods I consumed every day, 3-4 egg white omelet, 1 cup Blueberries, 1 cup Raspberries, ¼ cup Dry Steal Cut Oatmeal, 4-6 oz Pomegranate Juice, 1-2 oz Noni Juice, 1 cup Soy Milk, 2Tbl Flax seed milled, 1Tbl Wheat Germ. 1 Whole Tomato, 3-4 Tbl Organic Almond Butter, 1 Whole Grain English Muffin, 1 heaping tsp Cinnamon, 1 cup Yogurt, 12-15 8oz glasses of Mountain Valley Water( High Alkaline), Stevia instead of sugar. Other foods but not every day, Fish, heavy on Salmon, Lots of green veg, Chicken, Whole Wheat breads and pasta, sweet potatoes, Nuts, heavy on the Almonds, Soy meat substitutes. Foods excluded, Sweets- sugar, Alcohol, beef, White bread-potatoes-pasta. This got me through the chemo without losing any weight. I actually gained 10 pounds, so I have cut back on the quantity and increase the exercise to try and loose it. Other things that contributed most to managing my cancer. The knowledge that I have a God that has the power to heal me. Strong family support. Support from my Pastor and church. Support from prayer groups all over Florida. The doctors that God led me to. The ability to look forward to each Chemo treatment, I enjoyed every one of them. Being able to maintain my weight. No adverse side effects from chemo. Exercise Program. Exercise 6 Times a week, Weights 3 times a week upper body 40 mins, Aerobic 3 times a week. Tread Mill 47 min including 40 min 12 degree incline @ 4 MPH and 1 min 1.5 degree incline @ 8MPH I have now started to run again. I go 1 mile about 5 times a week. My best time is 10:13. At 68 I am happy with each improvement. Let me know if you have any other questions.

That is aggressive. I have had almost every conceivable treatment over the last 28 years for, first, lymphoma, now lung cancer. I had 6 weeks of radiation as a young man. Watch out for cumulative effects that come on after about 3 weeks of therapy - fatigue, fever, hoarseness, difficulty swallowing. These will all go away once the radiation treatment ends. I had 6 rounds of taxotere with carboplatin in 2004 before my doc took me off. It was reasonably effective at stopping the spread of the cancer, but there were too many side effects. Watch for edema (fluid retention, expecially around the feet), neuropathy (loss of feeling in feet and hands), taste changes, and the inevitable hair loss. Try to remember that individual reactions to chemotherapy drugs are all unique. No one can say how a specific drug will affect your father. He may get some, all, or none of the listed side effects. I've found over many years of being a cancer patient that it's usually better to be adaptible than to play "what if" with side effects. good luck, glenn

I underwent similiar treatment almost 3 years ago. Each person will be different but with the treatments I did not miss a day of full time work. Early AM Radiation, late AM< early PM Chemo. Eventually I had a severe reaction to CarboPlatin and chemo stopped. I went on IRESSA and have been on Iressa for about 2 yrs. I had Stage4 NSCLC and nothing shows active on my tests.Iressa is a growth preventative, Tarceva is also. The Oncologists know what it is and it works, or at least in my case. Fatigue will probably be the biggest obstacle to face. Hope this helps RB Scott

Hi Mary,

My name is Jacob and my father was diagnosed with Stage 4 Adenocarcinoma.  He went through Tarceva but i suppose the medicine ran its course and its not as effective as it should be at the moment.  not that it shouldn't be an option..you should def. have a talk with ur father's oncologist to see if it would be a proper treatment option.  it has good response to non-small cell lung cancer.  and it actually reduced the amount of cancer my father had initially.

The oncologist started my father on the same types of Chemo drugs as your father.  from what i've personally researched and what the oncologist has told us, lung cancer responds quite well to this treatment.  it is aggressive, however, the preventative measures the doctors take have good response as well.  from boosting the immune system by injecting meds to boost white bloodcell count, to suppressing the nastiness of nausea.  they do however cause one to be pretty fatigued.  this is all from what i've heard, not yet seen first hand.

i'm sure it ranges from person to person but the oncologist gave us a good amount of hope that it might possibly work. 

i hope this helps.  i wish you the best of luck.  PRAYER, as one would imagine, does wonders.  :-)

Best regards,
Jacob