Melanoma: What are your tips about immunotherapy (Keytruda)?

@jake072: @colleenyoung is correct. I had been sailing along fairly well with Keytruda for my Stage 4 melanoma with only a few speed bumps early on in my treatment…up until nearly the one year mark. The good thing at that time was my one metastatic nodule had resolved, but the bad is for the past six months I’ve been struggling with the effects of immune checkpoint inhibitor colitis including such related reactions as enteropathic arthritis. My activities of daily living have been fundamentally altered. But…I’m here. Years ago this diagnosis would have been a certain death sentence. As you’ve seen, this dreaded disease can rear its ugly head at any time, but how fortunate I feel to benefit from the interventions medicine has to offer. Sure, it’s not fun to take one (or more) medications to offset another but I realize if it wasn’t for Keytruda I’d be a lot worse off now.

While my oncologist has suspended further infusions, the hope is that once I get this current issue under control I can resume what I considered my “safety net”. Like any net, I realize i could lose my footing and fall through at any time. But what gratitude I have learned to express every day, for every moment - even the small joys found within them. I feel fortified with knowledge so that I am make informed decisions for whatever may come next, and hope to be at peace with those decisions.

Do what is best for you, and take some comfort that you are not alone.

@rfannin: I think that's a very wise consideration. While there are general guidelines for the administation of Keytruda, it's definitely worth discussing the possibility of tailoring the infusions as you suggested due to your mother's past medical and safety concerns.

Once you've had the opportunity to discuss this with her oncology team, could you let me know their approach?

I'm doing pretty good on the keytruda. I've only had one dose so far, but am going for my second in 2 weeks. I only had stomach ache for 1 day. The tumor has definitely gotton bigger though on my arm...actually appears larger than the first one that was cut out. This second is only an ich away from the incision of the other taken out 1 year ago. The surgery team did a pep smear to see if they could see more than this one and a small satellite one only a centimeter from the larger one. I guess they wanted to schedule the surgery, but wanted to make sure it hadn't spread so I would be a candidate, The more I read about cancer and treatment, the more I realize no one knows what works and what doesn't. Every case is so different where some do all the stuff, chemo, radiation, target therapy, adjuvaunt, neoadjuvant, etc. I hope I made the right decision on keeping this tumor in while the keytruda has something to fight against, but in the back of my mind im thinking, "Cut this bastard out before it spreads"!

Doing well! So far all scans are clean and I feel great. I’m getting scanned every 4 months still for the rest of this year then I’ve decided every 6 months for maybe 2 years. Thanks for asking. Just hiked to the top of the middle Teton, 6.5 miles 7000 feet elevation in 3.5 hours. Hiking is my passion so I’m grateful I can still do that. Just turned 58. Peace.