Anyone taking cox-2

[Kim in DC]

Is there anyone taking a cox-2 inhibitor? If so what? Do you believe it's working? Are there any natural cox-2s?

Kim in DC

[*_Annemarie_*]

I take 200mg of Celebrex. I am not concerned with safety. The max. dose is 400mg. The study with heart problems was between 400 mg to 800 mg.

[Guest]

I am taking Celebrex at 800 mg/day--400 mg/twice/day. There are supposedly natural cox2 inhibitors. Supposedly Turmeric is one. Another would be a supplement--Zyflamend. I do believe it has been helping.
Now, as far as the media/pharmaceutical hype about there being an increase in cardiac events--can't say for sure whether that is/isn't true. The studies re. such are contradictory. What is more--this info was available over 2.5 years ago when I researched it before taking it. Both my onc and I decided my risk of b.c. recurrence was greatest.
I used to joke that my big fear was that it was such an effective anti-tumor drug that they would take it off the market, make a few changes, and remarket it as such at an astronomical price.
I am afraid that might happen. When Merck voluntarily withdrew Vioxx, I again mentioned my concerns to my oncologist. Much to my surprise not only did he not disagree, he said that soon I wouldn't be able to get Celebrex. The next day I called Pfizer--the manufacturer's of Celebrex and was reassured of its safety. I am guessing I talked with someone in customer service. They even took out a full page ad in the main paper which talked about how safe it was.
I then decided I better renew my prescription. I was quite surprised that when I picked it up that instead of being in the standard bottle it was given to me in a generic, 4-inch bottle (never got any medication in that size before) that was 2 inches in diameter--weird. I then learned that our non-profit HMO was involved in the study that showed the safety related problems with VIOXX. Was Pfizer now rewarding them for this or were they in process of getting rid of the Celebrex they had?
There were many articles about it in the paper. There was one where the CEO of Pfizer said it was safe and there was no need to take it off the market. The same article also had a quote by some commissioner (FDA? or ?) who said it should come off the market. One article said it should be allowed to be sold in other countries but not the U.S. (Huh???).
Then one week before the announcement came out about Celebrex--about 2 mos. after VIOXX was voluntarily removed--I got an email out-of-the blue assuring me that there was no difficulty with its safety profile. How did they get my email address? I only use this for cancer-related issues and have written my concerns about it online on different breast cancer support groups. Who's reading them? This all broke around the time of the San Antonio breast cancer conference where there were some presentations on its use with b.c.--positive effects. Was this coincidental. At the same time there were online headlines which stated that "Celebrex cured cancer." Although a bit far-fetched--or at least incomplete and premature--there is something in what it may do for many.
In fact if one were to do a web search on it--there are hundreds of thousands of articles in which its efficacy is discussed.
When all this happened I was reminded of what happened in our town about 10+ years ago. We used to have 2 hospitals. A large company bought both of them--promised to turn on into a special treatment center--wound up shutting it down after alotted time period and selling off the property. The same thing happened on two opposite corners where there were gas stations. Shell bought both of them and operated both for a given, prescribed time. It then shut one down, removed the pumps and then sold off the property. My husband said the same thing happened many years ago re. one of the discount dental suppliers he used. A few of the competing companies got together, bought it out, and shut it down--elimination the competition.
Celebrex is too good. It probably works as good if not better than many of the newer drugs which address the same pathway--with less side effects. Yes, there probably are some concerns about its safety profile at higher doses--but not that much more so than any of the other chemotherapy drugs on the market. I am guessing that its patent is about to expire. Once a patent expires any company can make the drug for whatever price they want.
There was also another article that came out a short while back that discussed the progress of developing cancer drugs. There aren't that many more ways to go. In their analysis they included cox 2 inhibitors. From what I recall Celebex was the only one listed that was not developed strictly for cancer (but I may be wrong). However, it had the best efficacy profile. From what I remember it had the largest % of patients who took it have either a complete response or partial response.
To take this even further--and again I have no evidence--just speculation. I recently read an article that talks about profit margins for pharmaceutical companies being 5 times greater than for other large manufacturers or business. I believe the profit margin was 15 billion whereas in other industries it was 3 billion. Where are those profits going--are they staying within house? True, it is very expensive to develop new drugs--but are they going for the 'war' on cancer or some other 'war'...I have no clue if any of this is in anyway truthful--just some thoughts that popped into my head which may be very far-fetched. (I read too many mysteries).
One of the most expensive anti-cancer drugs is Neulasta--developed by Amgen. It costs six thousand dollars per injection. Someone who is insured and pays 20% has a twelve hundred dollar co-pay. That is obscene! Anyway, if one company can make such a huge profit on one medication developed for cancer-related treatment, just think of the potential for a slight revision of Celebrex. It's too good not to use as an anti-cancer drug. However, if that occurs it will be a sad day in time for all with cancer and any other type of life-threatening illness that can be potentially helped by medication--particularly those that are currently available.
The same sort of thing appears to be happening with Isotretinoin (accutane). Again, the drugs do have safety issues but their anti-cancer potential makes them far too valuable to be readily acccessible for other uses...I hope I am very WRONG and Celebrex is allowed to have a long life...

[Lyn]

Hi I was taking NSAIDs but found that as I had suffered heart failure in 3 valves in 2003 from Thyroid Medication and not in any way because of Herceptin any suggestion by Heart Specialist, GP and others for me to have any of these was out of the question. I also suffer with a connective tissue disorder that only settles with Ibruphen and not Celebrex and my fractured shoulder which turned into arthritis only settled with Celebrex and not Ibruphen so when I had a flare up in my knee I took Ibruphen for a while and I started to get breathless again so I stopped and did research on natural and came up with Omega 3 oils contain COX2 and settled on Flaxseed tablets and I am doing OK and also on Glucosamine now.

Hugs Lyn

[*_KathySC_*]

Hi, I take zyflamed by New Chapter. It is a supplement that contains natural COX 2 inhibitors and suppresses it by 80%. You would not want your COX 2 suppressed 100%, your body needs some. I have written this before... but a very important read is "Beyond Aspirin" by Newmark and Schulick. Please everyone should own this one. There was a great study out last year that showed that ER+, HER2 cancers benefit from COX2 inhibitors but not as much for us ER-. None the less I take zyflamed because after chemo.. who knows what other problems it is warding off.
Kathy