Spacing out maintenance chemo

Posted by mil63 @mil63, 4 days ago

If all things are stable, has anyone spaced out maintenance from 3 weeks to 6 weeks?

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Cancer: Managing Symptoms Support Group.

Sorry no one has had an answer for you. My experience may be a bit different but my regular chemo was postponed by two weeks once. It doesn't seem to have made much difference.

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This is an interesting prior discussion on Mayo Clinic Connect.

Your question doesn’t have an easy answer! Much depends on your individual circumstances - including your type of cancer, how aggressive it is, how your body handles the schedule etc.
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/maintenance-chemo-every-3-weeks-for-2-years/

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Yes. But not on a regular basis. I'm on Enhertu for endometrial cancer. I've been on it for 20 cycles (every 3 weeks for over a year now). I had one 6-week reprieve in 2025. Nothing disastrous happened. I will have another reprieve this May, and expect that no detrimental effects will occur.

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Dear @mil63 Yes. Twice. I was not on what you would consider maintenance yet, but had a complete response after four of six treatment cycles. The complete response after 4 treatment cycles was determined by very precise CTDNA testing and scans for my bladder cancer. The first time I went on a four week hiatus because of multiple blood clots in my arms from the infusion ivs. I should note that I have a highly aggressive form of advanced muscle, invasive bladder cancer that has a high probability of returning even with treatment. The second more recent time I went on a two month hiatus after six cycles because of multiple debilitating side effects from different treatment. The original plan for these 2 new drugs (padcev and Keytruda) was to stay on them until they stopped working or until my body couldn’t tolerate it anymore. I resumed treatment with Keytruda and based on recent testing my cancer is still non-detectable. I feel my awesome medical oncologist made the best decision both times due to precision testing and because of what the side effects were doing to me. I wish you the best!

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