It's been about 6 weeks since my histotripsy. I read and dr confirmed that it's effects can last up to 2 months as far as destroying liver lesions it worked on. I'm also on abraxane-gem chemo and my regimen is 3 weeks on and 1 week off and I just completed this and am continuing with this aggressive schedule. I did lose most of my hair before I got a chance to decide whether I wanted to try the skull cap which prevents hair loss in about half the patients who try it. I am using the iced booties and mittens to avoid neuropathy to hands and feet. I don't sugarcoat anything if you read my posts or comments. I already had a bit of leftover neuropathy in bottom of my foot from my gem-abraxane treatment which ended in early Jan. 2024. Even with the booties and mittens I did incur a little more neuropathy in that same right foot, but nothing too significant. My current oncologist said the theory behind the iced booties is that it is supposed to freeze the nerves in those locations so that they are not affected by the chemo. It occurred to me after 2 treatments that it's better to put the booties on about 10 minutes before they actually start infusing the abraxane so that your nerves are already frozen and I THINK this has helped as the neuropathy is no more for the worse.
I hadn't had my CA19-9 taken for the last 3 weeks until today. 6 weeks ago my ca19-9 was 13,900. And I had 3 lesions in my liver and 3 1.0-1.5 cm peritoneal nodules across my abdomen like a belt. I also had several other peritoneal nodules too small to measure. I've had a CT and MRI within the last 6 days. No mention of any SIGNIFICANT sized nodules. Today, my ca 19-9 result is 450!! A scary number to the average pancreatic cancer patient, but a miracle number to my family, my friends, and myself!! It's down from almost 14,000 just 6 weeks ago. Histotripsy and the abraxane-gem regimen works. My OPINION is that abraxane works on peritoneal nodules. I recommend histotripsy as a potential alternative to radiation to liver lesions, or at least it's another tool to put in your arsenal bag!!