Greetings. Glenn here age 45, married , with a daughter age 15. I was just dignosed with throat, tounge, toncil, neck bi-lateral cancer stage 4A , a week ago today. Petscan just today to see if it is confined to my neck and head. I am schedualed to meet with a "tumor" board that is at the Boca raton Hospital in Florida.
There is a trial study ongoing since 04 called the Paradigm trial , From the Clinical Research Head and Neck Oncology
Dana-Farber Cancer Center, this trail is expected to consist of 330 patients, since it's onset it has 270 enroled nationaly. This is content information I recieved back in corispondance from the Dana-Farber folks ::
The Paradigm trial consists of 2 "Arms" ;
Arm A: Induction chemotherapy followed by chemoradiotherapy. The induction chemo is 3 cycles (each cycle is 3 weeks) of TPF, which stands for Taxotere, Platinum and 5-Fu. Once the 9 weeks of induction chemotherapy are over, there is a period of evaluation and recovery and then the chemoradiation begins. There are 2 options for chemoradiation.
Option #1: 4 weeks of 1x daily radiation combined with 1x weekly chemotherapy (the drug is Docetaxol), followed by 2 weeks of 2x daily radiation
Option #2: 7 weeks of 1x daily radiation in combination with 1x weekly chemo (the drug is Carboplatin)
Arm B: Upfront chemoradiotherapy
About 3 1/2 weeks of 1x daily radiation followed by about 3 1/2 weeks of 2x daily radiation. There are two courses of chemo given (the drug is Cisplatin). The chemo is given on week 1 and week 4.
When we give chemotherapy during radiation it is used, not to kill cancer cells on it's own, but to help make cancer cells more susceptible to the radiation. This is kind of chemotherapy is considered radio-sensitizing. There is probably some good information about that on the web.
Now I would like to know if there is anyone on this board that has been involved in this trial ? I am fact finding in hopes of making a educated decision about a treatment direction .
This is from left field, and I am in the process of digesting I am now a cancer patient.
I have been advised at my stage if I do nothing I have 6 months max to live, any treatment I approch will be agressive as I want to stick around to watch my daughter grow . I have been told of all of the harsh side effects of treatment, they mean nothing to me other then survival. Thanks for any input. Glenn