my dad is suffering from non small cell carcinoma , chemo is not working , how can i find which medicin as chemotherapy is best suitable for him
my dad is suffering from non small cell carcinoma , chemo is not working , how can i find which medicin as chemotherapy is best suitable for him
Neel - can you give us a few more details on what treatment he's gotten? There are options even when first line chemo doesn't work. Where is he being treated, and have you gotten a second opinion from a different doctor?
hi lindafa
thanks for ur promp reply
my dad was diagnosised with lung cancer in the first week of june, his adrenel on left side was swollen , he was given chemotherapy n treated with paclitaxel[175mg/m2] and carboplatin AUC5.AFTER 3 CYCLES a ct scan was done which showed that his tumor on the main left broncus has increased in size and the swelling of adrenal gland has also increased compared to the previous scan. there r some more spoys also around the main tumor in the lungs. now his dr has decided to give his 12 radiotherapy to relieve him of his persistent cough n to start the second line of chemotherapy after that . my dads dr counselted dr sant chawla ,onchologist from california
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Hi Neel...I'm sure others will reply too, but your dad is not alone with not getting response from first line chemo. There are lots of other drugs out there to try...Gemzar, Alimta, Avastin, Navelbine to name a few I can remember. Plus there are some targetted therapies like Tarceva that some people have great results on. I am no expert...I'm mostly repeating what I've learned on this site. Read through some of the past posts and you'll get a good idea on treatments people have done. Hopefully the radiotherapy will help, and when you have the doctor's plans for his second line, you'll most likely be able to get some advice from people on the site. Keep in touch and good luck. ~Linda
Get him to a major cancer center like MD Anderson, too. :) I want to highly encourage you. :)
Huge hugs and lots of prayers!
Lorie
can something called cyber knife help my dad. is there anyone who can share their experience regarding cyber knife. i read about cyber knife today , i m quite hopeful after reading it but dont want to be hopeful under some illussion.
I dont know anything bout cyber knife, but i feel as if i am in the same boat as you. My dad was diagnosed in April with what they said was stage 1. he has surgery, it was removed and he was given a pretty good prognosis. Two months later he was still hurting and a pet scan revealed that he was now a stage four. he just had his second round of carbo/taxol like your dad and he is hurting again and now he is having stomach pains. We are scared it is not working. he keep falling into the crappy percentage rates for everything. he is going to have one more cycle and then a scan and i am afraid we will be in the same situation as you are. When you find out what his second round of chemo is please let me know
GOOD LUCK!
I dont know anything bout cyber knife, but i feel as if i am in the same boat as you. My dad was diagnosed in April with what they said was stage 1. he has surgery, it was removed and he was given a pretty good prognosis. Two months later he was still hurting and a pet scan revealed that he was now a stage four. he just had his second round of carbo/taxol like your dad and he is hurting again and now he is having stomach pains. We are scared it is not working. he keep falling into the crappy percentage rates for everything. he is going to have one more cycle and then a scan and i am afraid we will be in the same situation as you are. When you find out what his second round of chemo is please let me know
GOOD LUCK!
Neel:
Hi, my name is Rose and my husband has nonsmall cell, squamous cell. They said he is between somewhere in the stage 3 and this is only because of the location of the cancer (left hilar region abutting the bronchi. All the main arteries are there and the heart is right behind). Could not be operated on because of this location. Had 23 external beam radiation and five rounds of carbo/taxol.
You asked about the cyberknife. My hubby is going to have the cyberknife maybe this week - I am waiting on a phone call as we speak - A CAT scan was done to pinpoint the area and if it is not clear enough they will have to put in a couple of markers (fidicials) and then wait seven days and then do three treatments.
The Cyberknife is a pretty remarkable piece of equipment which is actually radiosurgery, used in place of regular surgery when a person cannot be operated on, even if the tumor was operable. There are actually only about 130 in the world.
There has been quite a bit of politics playing in this as this machine is so amazing it could actually sometime in the near future take the place of many actual surgeries, saving people from having to go through the surgery itself. However, like in the rest of these treatments, because it would take away from surgeons, there is a lot of blockage from different organizations so that this info isn't readily available.
This machine is submilimeter accurate, so no surrounding organs or tissues get burnt and hopefully it obliterates the tumor. We're about to find out firsthand. I will post once a future PET and CAT scan is done.
Good luck.
Rose
dont take a chance with the third round of chemo, please ask ur dr to get the scan before the 3rd round, if its working(size of tumor decreasing ) then go for the 3rd chemo, otherwise the poison will harm rather then help ur dad as it did my dad,side by side start a medicine called ganoderma, its a food supplement to boost the immunesystem ,so that the body is strong even during and after chemo, i give my dad 60 pairs of ganoderma capsule extract dissolved in water per day. find out more about ganoderma on the net.i have yet to see the real results of gano . all the best .keep in touch ,together we can fight better , god help us . good luck
dear rose , thanks for the piece of information u gave , i asked my dads doctor for cyberknife but his response was not encouraging , he said it cannot help in metestatic stage ,as the tumor can appear anywhere anytime . but i feel if all the major sites r once removed by cyberknife then treatment can be better , atleast it will not spread that fast. please let me ur response n experience as soom as possible , my dad is in terrible state , i wish god sends some hope . all the very best to u .keep in touch
love you.
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