In response to the question concerning the results of continued use of a drug, the toll on my body is an important factor but also that nebulous time when resistance will form. The cancer has already developed a resistance to doxil and topetecan after only five courses. The Gemcetibine/cisplatin combo treatment is new and very effective for most ovca patients. But it is hard on the bone marrow in particular. Since I seem to respond so effectively to this combo and since continued current use is not going to eliminate the cancer or offer me a time of remission as the cancer is too aggressive, I have opted to use it only as needed to bring my counts down and shrink the tumors.
Each change of drug brings it's own mystery factor. Will this drug work, how effective will it be, will I develop a resistance to it thus eliminating its use. The maintenance drug will likely be carboplatin which was on of the first I used back in 05/06. We don't know how it will work in this plan. We hope and pray it will be a stop gap for 6-12 months, but no one knows. After that we use gem/cis again or reach into the grab bag and pull something else out. There are some really exciting things happening in research for ovca right now but when they will be approved and available for use is a question. The next question is will my case no longer be a practical application for the new treatments.
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