Has anyone been on this chemo regimen? cant recall seeing much about it on here, if so please share results. Thanks!
Just so you know, it also goes by the name gemzar and taxotere. There's been a few discussions about it in the past. Here is one:
http://forum.synovialsarcomasurvivors.org/forum/topics/gem-tax-combo-experience
I was on it but, sadly, it didn’t work on me.
It is what I’ve been offered. Anybody on here who it has worked for?
My doctor said he’s had success with it but can’t find much online!
My husband was diagnosed 1 year ago today with Synovial Sarcoma in his left lung. It originated and has stayed there. Yay. He has had rounds of the Red Devil and Ifos. He currently is on his third round of Gemcitabine/Docetaxel. In between the 2 & 3rd round - fluid built up in his lung so much that it pushed his heart & esophagus to the right. Other organs were displaced as well with an inverted diaphragm. It was not good and dangerous. He had what they call debulking surgery and has a Plurex Catheter in his lung in which we drain each day. During surgery they drained almost 6 liters of fluid and got 90% of tumor out. During this surgery they also took tumor samples and they were sent out for genetic molecular profiling testing. Which means that they do tests on those samples to see which treatments would be beneficial to him and which ones would not and possible treatments not yet tried. Results came back that his tumor is sensitive to Docetaxel along with a couple of others. Thus the reason we are back on these rounds. We are trying to shrink this tumor and keep it at bay. We are being treated by the Mayo Clinic in Rochester MN in the Sarcoma Oncology Department.
Did your doctor say he had success with it on synovial sarcoma or sarcoma in general? You may want to ask him. This combo works well for leiomyosarcoma but not so great on synovial sarcoma from what I read...
mlukeuk said:
It is what I've been offered. Anybody on here who it has worked for?
My doctor said he's had success with it but can't find much online!
He said that he has successfully treated synovial sarcoma with this regimen in the past, I made sure
I am also going to use metabolic drug treatment along with the chemo. Please look up the CARE Oncology clinic in London and let me know what you think Elodie. Their website is careoncologyclinic.com
I’m on my way to London for a consultation as we speak. They claim to of had some good results with many cancers including sarcomas. They use a cocktail of common prescription drugs to take away the cancers energy source.
From a quick look at the website, I am inferring that they're giving their patients a combination of metformin and statins? I've read many article on the Warburg effect which is what this is targeting. Have you had a PET scan and do your tumors light up on it? In my case, my tumors usually didn't light up on PET scans (except one of them). It tells me that my sarcoma cells do not necessarily use the Warburg effect. How about yours?
mlukeuk said:
I am also going to use metabolic drug treatment along with the chemo. Please look up the CARE Oncology clinic in London and let me know what you think Elodie. Their website is careoncologyclinic.com
I'm on my way to London for a consultation as we speak. They claim to of had some good results with many cancers including sarcomas. They use a cocktail of common prescription drugs to take away the cancers energy source.
I have not actually had a PET scan. Usually just a CT with contrast. I started a clinical trial last month which had no effect and the tumors grew. Telling me they are not relying too much on angiogenesis. Because they grew so fast I think that suggests that they use glycosis (I may have worded that wrong). They must be relying on something! I just need to stabilise growth for now.
Is it true that gemzar/taxotere works better on fast growing tumors?
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I've heard of high dose ifosfamide working better on fast growing synovial sarcoma not gemzar/taxotere. But if your doctor saw a case may be it's worth trying? It's a big lottery anyway. And you can only find out by playing along :-(
Regarding the Warburg effect, may be it's indeed use by tumors when they grow fast. Mine definitely never grew fast. A PET scan would be the best way to tell... Unfortunately it is costly :-(