Tumor recurrence after resection 2 months ago

Just curious if anyone else has gone through this are has a family member/friend that has.  My husband has been battling astrocytoma/oligodendroglioma stage III since 2009.  He did not have a recurrence until 2 1/2 months ago and they did a complete resection and started him back on temodar.  Last MRI a week ago showed another tumor coming back so they want to start him on Carboplatin IV once a month for 2 months.  I am just surprised that he was okay for so long and then bam one after another.  Any feed back would be nice.  Thank you!

hi there, sorry to hear about your husbands regrowth.  I have gbm origionally the size of a baseball.  They were able to resect 85%  with in 6  months it was back to the same size but deeper so it was inop/  went on avastin and had perfectly clear scans for 10 months.  had sliight regrowth again dicovered ths jan and just completed 5 rounds of stereotatic rad therapy/ will have next scam mid march. THE average time between regrowth is only 6.5  months  for GBM

Thank you for your response.  I know everyone is different in there cancer and how it affects them.  I have read up a lot on it.  Just really concerned that after 2 months of having a tumor resected and going back on temodar that an MRI showed regrowth.  I am sorry to hear of your struggle and pray that the doctors can keep your tumor under control!

Sorry about the recurrences.  Has his tumor morphed into a GBM?  That would be a possible explanation for the rapid recurrences.

By the way, why Carboplatin?  It is a pretty toxic drug and has shown very little efficacy with GBM.  My husband was on it and it made him sick as a dog and did absolutely nothing to arrest the tumor growth.  Why not Avastin or Avastin in combination with the carboplatin? 

I'm not saying that your husband shouldn't do it, but I would question that treatment choice and see what your NO says.  The only reason why my husband was on Carboplatin by itself was that he was in a clinical trial and they were testing it out in combination with an experimental anti-angiogenesis drug ZD6474.  He happened to get into the arm of the trial where the drugs were used sequentially and not in combination.  We were bummed as we knew that he was in the "control group" so to speak.

God bless,  Sally

Hi Sally,

My husband and I have been separated for a year, so I am not there to question the doctors at City of Hope anymore.  I was wandering why just Carboplatin myself when I have seen no other scenarios where it is given alone and not in conjunction with another form of chemo or clinical trial.  My husband informed me that COH gave him the option of higher dose of temodar for a year, avastin, or carboplatin.  He said after they explained all his options that carboplatin seemed to be the best. I think I am going to go to his next appt. to find out what's going on.  Thank you...

My husband did Carbo alone for his AOA for probably 3-6 months.  It was the only drug that actually shrunk his tumor.  Unfortunately, his blood counts dropped too much on that one.  His tumor had both deletions.  You don't mention if he did radiation, but I am assuming he did initially.  Procarbazine might be another option, but it requires a pretty strict diet with it. 

-Karyn

Hi Karyn,

With his first tumor he did do radiation.  The second one just resection and back on temodar, 2 months later found another tumor occuring and that's when they decided to do the carboplatin.  I will check into the procarbazine.  Thank you, and well wishes for your husband.

~Melinda