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← Return to Pancreatic cancer relapse
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I’m in the same boat … many liver lesions appeared on my most recent 3 month scan. Biopsy today to confirm … but everyone is pretty certain is cancer again. My oncologist at Mayo is recommending Genzar+Abraxane … the thought being that my cancer has seen 14 rounds of Folfirinox, let’s hit it with something that it hasn’t seen. My hope is that we can kill off enough of the lesions to get to the point where the few remaining can be removed.
I’m full of fight … the Folfirinox treatments didn’t slow me down much. I am ‘visualizing thriving’ and I’m looking for input … thoughts … whatever you want to offer.
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@bobsrdoch
Absolutely! Never give up! I was diagnosed stage iv with liver lesions scattered everywhere Fulfurinox shrunk them together so that I could get to surgery!
In June another small tumor appeared in a totally unrelated area. Same advise-do Gemzar. Was apprehensive at first; esp knowing the success of fulfurinox. Sure enough, my body is reacting positively now. At first the tumor marker flew up but it’s since trended downward every two weeks. The side effects are very different but manageable if planned into your schedule. Beyond chemo to stabilize, there are more modalities to use to get to surgery. So do not give up, by any means!
Stage IV 20 month THRIVER!!
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@bobsrdoch , If you've seen 14 rounds of Folfirinox, I think you'll do fine on Gemzar+Abraxane. You might as well ask your oncologist if it's worth adding Cisplatin to the mix.
Cisplatin was a recommended add-in for my Gemzar+Abraxane because of the ATM mutation. But since Oxaliplatin was a part of your Folfirinox, it seems like they had no objection to giving you platinum-based agent in the first place, regardless of which mutation(s) you have.
I had 12 rounds of Folfirinox before Whipple. My CA19-9 bounced around a bit in the 120-240 range over that time, with a general trend upward. My surgeon graded the tumor response as "partial."
One month post-Whipple my CA19-9 went down to 12, but peaked near 700 six months later before I began treatment for the recurrence. After 16 rounds of GAC, it's down to 40. I'll find out what the scans say in a couple weeks about actual tumor response -- it's been declared "stable disease" on two previous MRIs. Hard to tell how much of the MRI size measurements are live tumor vs dead.
But, my response to GAC is undoubtedly better than it was to Folfirinox, and I find it more tolerable as well. So, I'm offering prayers, good thoughts, best wishes, and a big dose of encouragement. Never give up!