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Anyone finishing up treatment with Opdivo Immunotherapy after surgery?
Had Minimally Invasive I-R surgery at Mayo Phoenix 2 weeks ago and feel great. Surgery recovery thus far was way better than I expected.
Pathology showed all margins were clear, nothing in the lymph nodes and the PET Scan was clear. Tumor was 5.5 cm Stage T3N0. Oncologist wants to do a year of Optivo just to be sure all microscopic cancer cells are taken care of. Anyone else go down that road? Had 25 Proton Radiation and 5 Carbo/Taxol chemo and very little side effects. Mayo Oncologist says the Immunotherapy is becoming the standard of care after surgery.
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Thank you
@dannymac23, how are you doing with Opdivo?
@colleenyoung, So far so good, I think 😀. I had my 2nd one today, feeling fine in the immediate. After the first infusion I experienced some minor fatigue and minor general soreness mainly in abdomen and legs. Really no other side affects than that. All blood work today pre infusion (Comprehensive Metabolic Panel and CBC with Differential) was great so I think it’s so far so good!
Opdivo infusion effects vary greatly. I'll assume you're doing infusions once every two weeks, like most do these days. 3 1/2 years ago they just had me do 12 monthly full strength infusions, although the infusion time is still 30 minutes. You just get poked more often... for bloodwork and the infusions (assume you don't have a port since you did not do that type of neoadjuvant chemo regimen).
But I barely noticed any effects of my Opdivo infusions... maybe because I was so busy trying to figure my way forward thru this crazy post-op digestion journey. But I have personally talked with hundreds of other esophagectomy patients... and many also did adjuvant Opdivo. I've seen some have major reactions upon their very first infusion... some had to stop 4 months in, or 6 months, or after 8 months. Some did finish their year of infusions, but just barely, as itchiness and nasty rashes became too much... or joint aches and various other inflammations... very nasty. Also, steroid use to alleviate these side effects became too much of a roller-coaster ride.
But I will say that many, like me, see little to nothing. However you must keep paying attention to what you are seeing, and report anything out of the ordinary to your oncologist asap. For some of us, our immune systems don't like being messed with... and they rebel. As to the benefits we each see from Opdivo, or Keytruda (regardless of our PDL1 expression), hard for me to say. I'm still NED at 4 years now since being diagnosed in March 2020. But what's done it for me? Well I too did Carboplatin and Taxol chemo, radiation, esophagectomy, and my year of Opdivo... I have to assume it was ALL OF THESE THINGS that got me to where I am today as a T3N1M0 EC patient. That, and the biggest factor of all... dumb luck as to how MY body responded to all these things.
Good luck to you sir... you'll see monster changes in your digestion for the next 18 months (at least)... never get down... it is sometimes 3 steps forward and two steps back. And what's not working today may just be fine 3 months from now. Just keep shoving it in... make no concessions to your new stomaphagus arrangement... it will find a way to re-wire itself.
I do have a port still from when I had chemo, never got taken out. Glad you are doing well, I’ll keep plugging away and fighting the good fight. HIS will be done.