Resistance to Navelbine

[Karen t]

Have there been some previous posts about stopping a particular chemo, e.g. Navelbine, when it loses effectiveness and then resuming it successfully after a certain time has elapsed? If so, please let me know your experience.

[Jackie07]

Karen,

Just found this posting 'hidden' in the piles of threads. Thought it was an important question that merits our attention. Hopefully this time it'll get some answers from our members. Even if not, Lani might be able to find some research on this.

I did seem to have seen 'Novelbine' listed in members treatment history (signature) You might be able to find some information by scanning for 'Novelbine' in members signature - especailly the thread entitled "Long-time survivor..."

[Ellie F]

Hi Karen
I hope Rich reads this post. I seem to remember that he posted some research about this issue. Not sure if it was particularly about navelbine but the principal of trying previously used therapy again
Ellie

[Rich66]

Some here on the board have successfully revisited previously "failed" chemos for a while after other therapies were tried. I haven't encountered any research that explains this but it might be a case of different therapies pushing the cancer in different directions and sometimes it gets pushed back into a mode where a previous therapy can be effective again. That's a highly uneducated guess based on how it is thought that Herceptin increase a cancer's reliance on estrogen and ant-estrogen therapy can increase a cancer's reliance on Her2 pathway. So...a sliding scale of sorts that some suggest is best dealt with by blocking both. Again..I don't know if there is a sliding scale between other chemos. Seems possible.

But I am aware of some research behind revisting failed chemos (previously given in a maximim tolerated dose scenario) with a lower dose, more continuous approach called metronomic chemotherapy. The idea is that a lower dose reduces toxicity and requires less, if any, break from the chemo which could otherwise give the cancer time to recover/grow resistant to the drug: LINK

The other approach that can make a "failed" chemo work again is chronotherapy, giving the chemo at the time of day that is least toxic and most effective: LINK


Of course, if there is merit to these approaches, it might be best to employ them both from the beginning..since patients may not be experiencing a failure of the drug, but a failure in delivering the drug optimally. Avoiding/using alternatives to glucocorticoids and opiates/opioids could be additional steps towards preventing delivery failures.

Sorry..it's like you pulled my string.

Observations from a totally uncredentialled, but very concerned son.