Has anyone ever used Etoposide or VP-16??

[Amy]

Hi,
Have any of you wonderful women ever used Etoposide or VP-16 in your chemo regimen??? This is the drug my Onc is recommending now, but I haven't heard very much about this drug being used for Her 2 metastatic BC. So far I've not responded to anything, completely that is, and it's difficult to say how much, if at all the chemo I've been given staved off progression. I've had A/C, Taxol, Herceptin, Xeloda and Navelbine. And I haven't been on anything for 2 1/2 months now due to tumor progression and decreased heart EF. It was my choice to not proceed with anything for a bit....you know that quote, "Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different results". Well, that was my mindset at the time. I thought maybe if I "cleaned up" my body from the toxic chemo that it might make a difference. Nope, still progressing. Now, I need to do somehting. I'm leaning toward a combo of Gemcitabine and Carboplatin.....my Onc is not familiar with Lapatinb at all which disappointed me. I'm hoping to get on some form of treatment that will hopfully keep me stable until more info on lapatinib is available after the ASCO meeting. Does anyone know when or if it will be available off label??? Any comments will be much appreciated.
Love and prayers,
Amy

[R.B.]

I have had a quick scan of you posts and did not see anything on diet.

Please excuse me if you have "done diet".

IF not you may like to read this, and then look at the posts on omega threes and sixes, diet, and if you have time have a look at some of the books I have suggested.

http://www.her2support.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=23104&highlight=thought+provoking

Several books stress the importance of diet, good intestinal health etc as ways of reducing low level all body inflamation - gene expression can be altered by diet - some trials suggest links some between BC related gene expression and diet.

We all have the same genes (more or less), but can use them in different proportions. One of the factors that effects the proportions in which they are used is diet. Environment is another. A bit like tomatoes or grapes of the same variety grown in different environments will be different - due to gene expression being altered by environmental influences sun rain soil nutrients etc.

Significant changes in diet are best discussed with your advisors

RB