Ovarian Cancer: Should I go on Maintenance Therapy?

Hi there,
I don't have any experience with your condition, but did have carboplatin and paclitaxil for endometrial cancer. I am about to go on hormonal therapy. I too am concerned that it will do any good, and neither does my oncologist. At this point it is the best of all "evils" as far as side FX. If it proves to be useless, or my condition worsens, I'd be put on targeted therapy, which my onc. referred to as "the big guns".
In any event, I strongly suggest you talk to your oncologist about your concerns and learn as much as you can about the treatment s/he is suggesting. In addition, have him/her refer you a kidney specialist to discuss the matter.

Hello! I'm Sheryl and I am new to this site! I have mixed feelings about going on Lynparza 400mg due to the side effects, and I didn't know whether it would be worth it or not. I finished my IV chemo of carbo/taxol 2months ago, and have put off starting maintenance while we addressed a complication from my original surgery(hysterectomy). I wound up with a condition called hydronephrosis in one of my kidneys and have lost complete function in it. However my other kidney is perfect and my kidney levels are still normal. I am just concerned when I start the lynparza, will it affect my one remaining kidney. I also have high blood pressure now which concerns me as well. I was wondering if anyone can shed any light? Thank you!

I really love having a port. When I was getting infusions of maintenance they pulled labs every 3 weeks. Now my labs are only every 3 months, and they are considering moving me to 6mos if nothing happens in the next 3 months.

I will do the maintenance therapy after my visit with the dentist, on the port I'm not sure yet, if I will get it. How often do they test you for CA125?
Did you get neuropathy from your cabo taxols treatment, mine is bad in my toes?

I am still in chemotherapy. I requested to go into a trial so I could have a maintenance therapy. I'm HER2 +. The maintenance therapy will target that mutation. I wanted immunotherapy but I have an autoimmune disease and I'm not a great candidate for immunotherapy.

I've also seen a functional doctor who is prescribing my diet. I couldn't even guess at what to do in that area without his knowledge.

It's all time consuming. I want to live cancer free so I'm choosing more therapy.

I had carbo taxol with avastin for 6 infusions, then I have avastin only every 3 weeks for about a year.

I did have a port, and it’s still used today highly recommend. I will keep mine as long as it works, maybe years.

I play a lot of racket sports and walk a lot. I noticed when I used legs too much my recovery time took longer while on avastin. I had quite a bit of leg pain, but it was manageable and I could still remain active

Thank you for the quick reply. Did you have the maintenance therapy with avastin (or bevacizumab) right after
your first line treatment? I need dental work done and avastin may interfere with healing of
my dental procedures. Oncologist recommended: No dental work, extraction, till 6 weeks after the last chemo treatment, then get my
teeth fixed, then wait another 3 weeks or so based on healing process, then I start the avastin treatment which is to last 30 minutes each time, no other drugs injected. Did you get a port or could you tolerate the infusion with the needle? Did you experience other side effects besides high blood pressure? I still deal with side effects from the last chemo, pain, neuropathy, fatigue, taste change.

I continued Avastin for a full year. My blood pressure was well controlled during this time and I think I could have continued safely, but the pharmacy felt the benefits would not out way the risks at that point. The major risk I believe was a recurrence requiring surgery, which we were anticipating due to some PET activity that’s been under watch. I think the longer off, the better healing I would have for another abdominal surgery. Since going off about 10 months ago, I have had a small increase in activity on the PET, but nothing significant enough to warrant treatment. I think it’s been an excellent choice to use it, although I was not certain I should at the time. Best of luck to you sis.

Good questions, @charlotte12. I'm tagging @katycot to make sure she sees your questions to her.

I just finished my 6 chemo treatments, my oncologist suggested maintenance treatment of one year with avastin, every 3 weeks, my CT scan and CA125 all showed no evidence of disease, I developed high blood pressure during
Chemo treatment which included avastin and control it with 2 blood pressure medicine. the oncologist also suggested it is up to me if I want maintenance treatment - how was your plan
and did you take avastin? Maybe you can share your experience?