Interferon And Sutent

Hello my name is Debra, My mom was diagnosed with RCC in Feb. of this year. With her kidney removed all was well until August when scans showed mets to the lung and lymph nodes. Small lung spot was removed but the lymph node spot is inoperable. We are cuttently involved with a trial at Sloan in New York City, that involves Interferon and Sutent. She is running fevers and has flu like symptoms. If anyone out there can tell me what to expect in the way of side effects it would be greatly appreciated. How long do the fevers and chills last. This is very new to us and I need all the information I can get on the drugs she is taking. And I would rather talk to people that are actually using the drugs than just reading side effects on a web site.

Thank You God Bless Debra(:

Hi Debra this is new information the combination of interferon and sutent. My husband was interferon for 3 1/2 years and had the flu like symptom constantly however they were tolerable and with the help of tylenol he managed. He is now on sutent will not exactly. He started cycle 1 and had to come off after 3 weeks because creatine went up. I can't remember but you should check and see if flu like symptoms are a side effect of sutent as well. That would account for her really being sick. I would definately check with her doctor. Hopefully he/she will be able to provide more information. Here at our facility in New Brunswick Canada they haven't started mixing the drugs so this is new to me. Hang in and check everything out. You can get a lot of information from the pharmacy as well. Good luck and we will be thinking about you. Mary

Hi Debra, The drug combination your mother is taking is news to me. My husband lost his left kidney in 1999 to RCC no lymph node involvement. Mets to lungs and bone. Left hip, femur, knee and half of shin bone replaced in 2004 with metal. Hypercalcemia is his enemy, despite no measurable tumors anywhere in his body now and the parathyroids are fine. He has been on sutent since 3/1/2006. Rough time during his fourth round and almost decided to go off because mouth so sore couldn't eat, anemic, flu like symptoms, extreme fatigue, tightness in chest, panic attacks. So sick he sat for nearly three weeks of the 28 days on the side of his bed unable to function. Fifth round much better after family doctor prescribed Celexa and Prevacid to help counter some of the side effects. He's in his seventh round and its hard to determine if side effects of weight gain mild mouth soreness and fatigue on from the Sutent or the residual problems of having taken Zometa for 18 months a couple years ago or the hypercalcemia problems of today.

It sounds like the doctors are trying to come up with a 'cocktail' tailored to your mother's RCC. You might want to ask if there are some supportive drug treatment available to help with the side effects.

Hang in there. RCCRebel

hi deb, i'm no expert but mixing those two together sounds unusual. usually they put someone on one or the other but i could be wrong. my mom was diagnosed in august 2006 and they had her on interferon.

 she has two more injections until they try sutent instead next week.

interferon was rough on her.  Terrible flu like symptoms when she started but strong anti biotics kicked that right away.   But after that, alot of fatigue, nausea on and off all day. 

so we're praying sutent will be better.  They want to try her out on that.

Dallison