CancerCompass message board discussion started by GeorgesGirl on 1/14/2008 http://www.cancercompass.com/message-board/message/all,19721,0.htm Sat, 06 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT Sat, 06 Sep 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://backend.userland.com/rss RSS.NET: http://www.rssdotnet.com/ Hi All,Sorry I've posted so many questions. The more I read the more questions I think of! Daddy is on cisplatin and irinotecan. He has EC with mets. to the right lung. Much of what I've read talks about cisplatin with 5FU. Has anyone had the cis./irino combination?Thanks for all your help! GeorgesGirl Mon, 14 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT Excuse me if this repeats.  I just lost my message to you.  We used cisplatin/irinotecan/docetaxol.  Believe it has some of the best statistics for success.  Cisplatin is radiosensitive and encourages radiation to work harder shrinking esophageal growths.  See a lot more info about 5-FU, but read yesterday that new studies are proving that multi drug combos are improving survival rates in patients using this regime/radiation prior to surgery, so that's encouraging.  It was difficult chemo.  First round had endless vomiting, nausea, weight loss (but was in conjunction with radiation).  Do whatever you can to stay ahead of vomiting-once you go there it's hard to come back.  2nd and 3rd round were a year later, in bigger doses (minus radiation, since lung mets returned after cleaning them up pre-surgically).  The irinotecan was brutal-diarrhea like you would not believe.  This can be life threatening so he needs to stay hydrated, and you need to really watch his condition and get him to oncologist or ER if he is deteriorating a lot.  We had two hospital stays in the first round of chemo (1x/wk for 2 weeks with a week off and repeat again for a round).  After that I recognized what was happeneing sooner, and the oncology nurse's realized I wasn't full of shit when I called for help so we made it back to oncologist to hydrate him and get him straightened out again.  During the last cycle, I asked her to cut the irinotecan dose some, since I had read the studies and the success rate with the smaller dose dropped 1%, and we's already had a clean scan after round 1.  Just didn't know how much more he could take, and oncologist had told me the FDA pulled irinotecan for colon cancer use because of the diarrhea being fatal at times, so I knew it wasn't anything to mess around with.  I know this sounds scary, and in fact it was.  But we got through each day with a lot of care, and using Zofran and Emend usually the first couple days after chemo weren't too bad, but by day 4 the diarrhea would hit and it would be downhill from there.  There was very little rest because it was worse at night when he would try to lay down.  On the plus side, it has worked for us both times we used it in combination with other drugs.  Good luck.  If you need support or have questions, I'll try to share whatever information I've acquired over the past 2 years.  I go back to school next week, but will try to stay on touch with the board too.    tongrenhealer Tue, 15 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT