Hello, new to boards - Cancer: Colon Message Board

Sandporterfield · 08-31-2004, 01:02 PM

Hello,

I'm new to the boards and have been reading them for past few days. My husband was dx. with colon cancer with mets to the liver in Jan 2004.
( stage 4 ) He was started on Oxaliplatin IV every 3 weeks and Xeloda pills
14 days on 7 days off. He was told surgery was not a option at the present time. He is 48 years old and has taken 7 treatments of Oxaliplatin and has been on the Xeloda pills since Jan 2004. We are holding the Oxaliplatin right now due to numbness in his hand put will re start when needed. Still taking Xeloda 14 days then off 7 days.

CT scan in Jan showed several lesions to both lobes of the liver, present CT scan shows liver clear of lesions and colon tumor is also getting smaller. We have been very happy with the Oxaliplatin and Xeloda. He has been weak from chemo but has lost no weight and seems to do really well on this treatment. From what we understand this is a maintenance plan. I have notice some posting that you only get 6 or 7 treatments of Oxaliplatin in the UK. Is there a reason only so few treatments?

This seems like a really nice message board and I hope to be able to get answers and help others. By the way we are from US.

Sandra

ktee_uk · 08-31-2004, 02:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sandporterfield

Hello,

I'm new to the boards and have been reading them for past few days. My husband was dx. with colon cancer with mets to the liver in Jan 2004.
( stage 4 ) He was started on Oxaliplatin IV every 3 weeks and Xeloda pills
14 days on 7 days off. He was told surgery was not a option at the present time. He is 48 years old and has taken 7 treatments of Oxaliplatin and has been on the Xeloda pills since Jan 2004. We are holding the Oxaliplatin right now due to numbness in his hand put will re start when needed. Still taking Xeloda 14 days then off 7 days.

CT scan in Jan showed several lesions to both lobes of the liver, present CT scan shows liver clear of lesions and colon tumor is also getting smaller. We have been very happy with the Oxaliplatin and Xeloda. He has been weak from chemo but has lost no weight and seems to do really well on this treatment. From what we understand this is a maintenance plan. I have notice some posting that you only get 6 or 7 treatments of Oxaliplatin in the UK. Is there a reason only so few treatments?

This seems like a really nice message board and I hope to be able to get answers and help others. By the way we are from US.

Sandra

Hi Sandra

I am sorry you have come to the healthboards in such circumstances. I don’t know if you read any of my posts but I have referred to my husbands condition and the fact that he had 6 cycles of Oxaliplatin/5fu/folonic acid inbetween his bowel resection and liver resection. In the Uk they prefer to operate on the primary cancer asap and then concentrate on the mets. After his bowel surgery they told us his liver was inoperable due to the quantity, size and location within his liver. The Oxaliplatin regime was used to try and shrink them to an operable level which they did. We were told that the first 6 cycles of the regime are the most effective in obtaining maximum shrinkage. They also wanted to operate asap as the mets were starting to affect his liver function. He had also lost a dreadful amount of weight. His mets were to both lobes and also verged onto a biliary duct (? I think). After liver op he had the final 6 cycles of oxaliplatin to try and reduce risk of recurrence and squeezed in a month of radioT as well.

He did not have Xeloda but my mum did but not in conjunction with the Oxaliplatin as this was too aggressive for her (she was 78 and had other health problems). When she took the Xeloda she had terrible blood blisters appear on her hands and under her nails. They think was due to combination of her warferin and Factor VIII blood disorder. She tolerated it for a while but then came off it but it did shrink her liver mets and probably added quite a few months to her life.

I have not heard of taking both chemo drugs together. Is this a standard regime in your part of the world? Also, had he had any surgery at all (was not sure whether you had referred to just his liver)? I would be interested to know.

Hope the above comments are helpful
Good luck
Ktee

Sandporterfield · 08-31-2004, 06:13 PM

Hi Ktee,

Thank you so much for your reply. I did read your posts and felt like our husbands were about at the same stages. I really felt for you, with your mom and husband both having colon CA. I was sorry to read about your moms death, cancer is such a hard battle to fight.

My husband has not had any surgery, the primary cancer in the colon is in the desending area and is not very large. It is not causing any problems with bowel passing thru. Our doctors felt since his liver was in such bad shape ( lots of mets both lobes and also had biliary ductal dilatation of the left lobe) we should treat with chemo.

I believe this regime ( Oxaliplatin- Xeloda) is fairly new, Our Oncologist had a pt that went into a trial program and had great results before FDA approved Oxaliplatin to be used here. My husband is young but does have other health problems.. High blood pressure and Diabetes. I would really like for him to have the colon resection, but he seems to be doing so well and the doctors feel leave it alone .

I am very thankful for the Oxaliplatin/Xeloda ( and prayers). We are both in our 40's with 2 boys (20 & 13 ) so we have alot of life to live. We will be married for 23 years on Sept 11 . So, we plan to fight this battle long and hard... I hope your husband is doing well.

Sandra

ktee_uk · 09-01-2004, 10:20 AM

Hi Sandra.

Must confess i'm a little confused now. I was told that if the primary tumor is not removed then all that will happen is for the cancer to keep growing back and metasizing to other organs. Is there no plan at all to perform resections?

With my husbands case both we and the medical team discussed the fact that the cancer was aggressive and invasive and therefore needed aggressive and invasive treatment. The surgeries were really bad as so many here on the boards will testify to but I dont think I would let the doctors sit back and leave it alone (easy for me to say i know).

Good luck
ktee

jaydees · 09-01-2004, 12:17 PM

One thing that all of us who have experienced cancer in the past will have to deal with is that new procedures may, or perhaps I should say, will, come about that, if available when we went through it would have resulted in less pain and discomfort than we did experience. In Sand's case this could be one of those. If the original tumour and the mets are all small enough perhaps this regimen is thought to be enopugh to shrink the cancer to nil without surgery. Sand(dra?) do you know if this is an experimental or very new treatment?