5-Day Chemo Regimen
Chemotherapy, My Story February 15th, 2008
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Well, I have decided that when I am finished with cycle #5, I am going to try the 5-day chemo regimen. With this schedule, I will take Temodar for 5 days and then be off of the drug for effectively 23 days each month. I mentioned in a number of posts back in the October time-frame or so that the reason I was on this 7-day alternating week schedule was due to the improved survival rate. There are studies that indicate this is true, particularly when taking the drug every day at a lower dose as I did concurrently with radiation therapy post-surgery. However, I opted for a 7-day alternating schedule because I just couldn’t deal with being on the drug 24/7/365 so-to-speak. As the cumulative effect has developed, however, it’s become more difficult to recover each week on the 7-day.
It’s a difficult, strange new land to navigate – full of decisions to make and everyone has a different opinion. There is no doubt that the radiation and Temodar as the chemo of choice and used concurrently were right on target. The questions are the regimen and secondly how long. Some people take this drug for 2 years. The “standard of care” is 6 months. My oncologist is probably going to recommend 1 year. So, if you have stable MRIs through a year, obviously coming off of the drug is a little bit unnerving. However, there are long term side effects to taking this drug – such as Leukemia. One thing is for certain, based on research and discussions I have had, it doesn’t appear there is any benefit to using Temodar beyond 24 months.
In 2 weeks I will sit down with my Oncologist and discuss this but I’m definitely going to try the 5-day. It will be about 100mg more per day – 400mg instead of 300mg. I’ve tolerated it well so we’ll see how it goes but the goal is to have more quality time each month with my family. It’s not terrible and I make it through ok but if I can improve it, particularly given the little data re: survival rates and the significant data backing up the 5-day, that would be great. Additionally, I have done the alternating regimen for nearly 6-months so I feel good about that.
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Hi Mark:
I wanted to let you know that I have gotten a lot of encouragement reading your blog. My father is fighting a GBM tumor dx 8/07, he’s been on the 5/23 Temodar regimin since November, a month after his radiation/chemo that lasted six weeks. I hope things go as well for you!
Wanted to make sure you knew about this also:
http://www.braintumor.org/event/?p_EventId=121545
Best regards,
Terri
Terri,
Thanks for your comment. I wish your father the best! This is an ongoing journey as you know and it sounds like he is doing fantastic.
I am aware of this conference. I have the wonderful benefit of being treated by three of the doctors listed, Jeffrey Supplica is my Radiation Oncologist, Nora Wu is my Oncologist and Edie Zusman is my Nurosurgeon who performed surgery back in June 2007. They are all fantastic. I would highly recommend that anyone attend who needs a good primer. They keep me very up to speed per my regular appointments on new developments but I still might attend solely for the networking aspects.
Thanks again Terri and the best to you and your father.
Mark