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Hi Everyone,
I was just curious if anyone was aware of any bad side effects from Megace, or some kind of contraindication with this medication and lung cancer?
Another member of this site asked me this question, and I have no idea ........ thought you all might .......
Thanks!
Cheryl
Dehydration Cancer Plague Avastin Lung cancer Head and neck cancer Breast cancer
My Dad couldn't take it b/c he was getting severe chest pains.
My husband took it for quite awhile. He didn't have any side effects from it that I can recall but after a while I think it lost its effectiveness on him.
I've been on it for several months. I feel it's loosing it's affect on me now, as I am not as hungry as when I first started taking it.
No side effects that I noticed.
I haven't had any bad side effects. The taste is simply awful, it's like pinesol smells. It has done its job though and I am eating again, actually start craving food earlier than meal time and am not losing weight anymore which in turn has given me more strength.
My husband only took it for a short time. He had no ill side effects however, we didn't feel that it helped him.
Jean
Cheryl
There is one caveat about Megace in advanced cancer patients. There is a small increased risk of blood clots.
I checked with some researchers at Wake Forest who were performing studies on combatting severe weight loss that can plague patients undergoing radiation treatment for lung and head and neck cancer. Megace clearly reduced weight loss and improved quality of life in study patients.
I brought up the matter of blood clots and Megace, which I had my wife on. The lead researcher had stated that he felt, in the end, my wife's PE would have been most attributed to the advanced stages of her chemo-radiation necrosis and not from the small increased risk of blood clots in advanced cancer patients who take Megace.
Cheryl;
My dad took it, but it did not work for him. No side effects, it just didn't help increase his appetite. I think it makes your sugar go up, also, so if you're diabetic they will have to monitor carefully.
Cheryl
Megace is NOT recommended for LC patients. Unless I am badly mistaken - somewhere in the information on it states it shouldn't be taken by LC patients. Blood clots are a serious concern. This turned into a big "WOOPS" with my mom while were at MDAnderson. She had a doctor in the ER prescribe it and about 2 weeks later - "WOOPS" there was another trip to the ER and she was dx. with a PE. From there she started the Fragmin shots. And, like others mentioned here - it did nothing to help with her appetite. The oncologists nurse at MDA told us about the "WOOPS" (her words-not mine) "Megace and Avastin are never to be used together because of the blood clot problems, they are just a certain receipe for blood clots".....hmmmmmmm, would have thought the doctor at a hospital like that would have been more in tune with that, right?
It worked well with no side effects for my mother who also had lung cancer. She was only treated with radiation.
Ironic. Megace was originally used as an anti-hormonal treatment for breast cancer and was found to induce weight gain "as a side effect." Later studies showed the drug's effectiveness as an appetite stimulant for patients with HIV, chronic diseases and cancer cashexia, a "wasting syndrome" in which fat and muscle are lost because of the presence of a cancerous tumor.
One of the subtypes studied by Wake Forest researchers involved lung cancer patients. They admitted there is a "small" increased risk of blood clots.
But with the advent of Avastin, I could see taking both drugs at the same time may be a very serious problem. A new analysis by researchers at Stony Brook University of randomized controlled trials of Avastin had found it was linked to an increased risk of deep vein blood clots or venous thromboembolism in the legs or lungs compared with treatments that did not use it (JAMA, November 19, 2008).
Avastin is indeed associated with wound dehiscence (particularly in advance cancer patients). The vascular inhibitory effects of Avastin predispose to these complications. There are good sides and bad sides to all drugs. What needs to be learned, and obviously sometimes the hard way, is how do drugs work and how to use them best. This is particularly true when they are biologics. They can be working in ways and speed that doctors arn't used to.
Dr. Ian Haines, a leading Melbourne oncologist, feels that cancer sufferers are taking doses of expensive and potentially toxic treatments that are possibly well in excess of what they need. Because pharmaceutical companies are the only group that can afford to fund trials of expensive drugs, they have enormous control over the scientific evidence that dictates how they should be used.
Writing in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, he cites an emerging body of evidence showing that many of the new and highly expensive cancer drugs may be just as effective and produce fewer side effects if taken over shorter periods and in lower doses. For Avastin, the dose being tested is 15 milligrams per kilogram of body weight. This, despite research showing it may work with 3 milligrams per kilogram.
When I experimented with Megace for my wife's weight gain, my local pharmacist said there was a 50-50 chance of it working for that indication. The only way to find out if it would work for her was to try it (it was enormously expensive). She gained back two-thirds of all the weight she lost because of the chemo-radiation therapies. From her personal experience, it worked very well.
I took megace and it worked quite well for 3 weeks. Then I got terrible stomach pains, one of the side effects and my doc immediately had me stop it and the pains went away.
I am on Marinol now and it works great also.
Good luck.
kat
My husband took it after his penumonectomy as he was severely down in weight and had no appettite. I know blood clots are a side effect - It did work well for him, he was not on it for too long as it got his appettite going.
KitKat,
How many milligrams of marinol do you take? We have a prescription for 5mg. 4x daily, but it has lost it's punch.
I started a new discussion about steroids, but was curious, as you said it was working for you.
Thanks,
Marie
I take 2.5mg daily. Hmmm, I am surprised it stopped working for you.
Kat
My husband has been increased to 1250 mg of megases per day because the single dose lost all effectiveness. This dosage hasn't helped his appetite at all and he now has a feeding tube. He did get a clot in the begginning when on Avastin and the 625 dose of megaces , but, his weight was too dangerously low to not try it. he did gain 25 lbs ( back then ) and is allowed him to make it through 5 rounds of chemo he would have had to stop from malnutrition. I think the clot was worth it in that case. It's now the pseudomonas, malnutrition, and severe dehydration he is trying to battle each day now, but, he can't stay awake for more than 30 minutes from the drip antibiotics and nebulizor.
My dad took it...no bad side effects, it just didn't have any affect on his appetite at all.
When I brought my wife home from the hospital back in 1999, she was an eighty-five pound weakling. I asked our pharmacist about Megace for weight gain. Told it was a 50-50 proposition. Wouldn't actually know unless we tried it. In about three months, she gained back over 2/3rds of her weight. She was solid. I utlized anti-oxydant vitamin supplements to fight all the free radicals in the brain.
I remember her complaining every time when they went to poke her with a needle, they virtually never could find a vain. She was extremely annoyed by that. I looked into Gingko Biloba. After giving it to her for at least six months, when they went to poke her with a needle, they found plenty of veins to draw blood.
Cheryl,
Magase worked for me for about 2 months then lost it's effectiveness. In the beginning I couldn't stop eating.
I developed stomach pains and just so happens I was also on Avastin at the same time. (which I see might not have been a good idea according to the posts above.) Dr stopped Avastin and I choose to stop Magase.
To help with the appetite I'm on steroids that seem to work fine - my weight has stayed the same.
Good luck to you.
Adrian
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