Ache

[JOhn]

My wife is having chemo again. She's on Taxol, carbo, and Herceptin. This is her 3rd dose. This time she is having a ache flair-up. She does have Rosacia, but it has been in control. Was wondering if anyone else is experiencing this.
The funny thing is during the first chemo, her skin never looked better. What a way to keep your skin looking good.

John

[al from Canada]

Hi John,
I'm sorry to hear about your wife's aches but that seems to be the nature of the beast. In fact, I would guess that many women on pain meds are on them because of the chemo and not directly because of cancer pain. That's the case with mt wife anyways.

All the best,
Al

[janet/FL]

Hi John
Is this a skin flare up? Acne? I had those problems, too. Red spots everywhere and I never had them as a teenager even? But they went away. Course now I have shingles and I have a red spot on the tip of my nose.
If it is not one thing with chemo, it is another.
Janet/FL

[Lani]

They are known to cause acne as well as an initial glow and perhaps pink-cheeks. They can also cause a short episode of euphoria (when given without chemo, especially) so when you tell her she looks even better than usual it might have that much more of an effect. When combined with chemo, there is no predicting how any one person will react.

Acne is so much more pleasant than aches!

Good luck

[Lolly]

Hi John; I've had Rosacea for years but didn't start treatment for it until after I started Herceptin as it really "flared up" then. Like your wife, my skin looked great on the chemos given for primary disease, probably because they do supress the immune system and my dermatologist says Rosacea is believed to be an auto-immune disease. Once on Herceptin my skin really started looking terrible and was very uncomfortable, and my dermatologist and I think that's because Herceptin does activate the immune system which then triggers the Rosacea flare-up. So I'm on a daily low-dose sulfa antibiotic which has kept the flare-ups to a minimum. I still have to avoid major food triggers such as chocolate and red wine :( My doc thinks the Rosacea WILL go into remission eventually, but it sometimes takes long-term therapy.
As Lani points out, your wife's problem could be from steroid use, but she may want to see a dermatologist to determine if it's Rosacea being triggered by the drug combo.

<3 Lolly

<3 Lolly

[Lani]

Green Tea Extract Cream Shows Benefit for Rosacea

Peggy Peck
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Feb. 23, 2005 — In a small study, patients with papulopustular rosacea treated with a hydrophilic cream containing 2% polyphenone (green tea extract) experienced a significant reduction in mean inflammatory lesion count compared with patients applying vehicle cream, according to results reported here at the 63rd annual meeting of the American College of Dermatology.

Women randomized to the green tea extract cream had a 70% improvement in rosacea compared with women in the vehicle cream group (P < .0001) , said Tanweer Syed, MD, PhD, an associate professor of dermatology at the University of California at San Francisco. Dr. Syed developed the polyphenone cream.

"This is tantalizing," said Guy Webster, MD, moderator of the poster session at which the data were presented and vice chairman of dermatology at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. "These women obviously had rosacea and blushing. There is not much you can do for this. But the faces were looking distinctively red [at baseline] and they are coming out not distinctively red," he said, referring to images on the poster. Dr. Webster was not involved in the study.

While he found the results encouraging, Dr. Webster cautioned that the findings are from a small study. Larger studies with multiple investigators will be required to confirm the results.

The study recruited 60 women aged 25 to 50 years. All women had visible signs of papules and pustules, 20 had erythema, and 17 had telangiectasia. Half of the women were randomized to treatment with the 2% polyphenone cream and half to vehicle cream. The women applied the cream to their faces twice a day for four weeks.

Cure was defined by the absence of clinical signs of inflammation.

After four weeks, marked beneficial improvement was observed in both groups. But the active cream yielded a statistically significantly higher reduction in mean inflammatory lesion count than the vehicle cream measured by a standard global assessment score, Dr. Syed said.

The cream not only has been shown to improve rosacea, but green tea extract also has natural anti-aging and anti-acne properties as well as a sun protection factor (SPF) of 50, Dr. Syed claimed. "The green tea has a soothing quality that helps the redness."

The difference between this product and others on the market, Dr. Syed said, is that the green tea leaves are picked and used within five hours, before they turn dark and ferment.

Dr. Syed concluded that the cream is safe, well tolerated, and effective.

The study was 75% funded by Syed Skincare Inc.

AAD 63rd Annual Meeting: Poster 19. Presented February 20, 2005.

Reviewed by Gary D. Vogin, MD



Related Links

Conference Coverage

American Academy of Dermatology 63rd Annual Meeting

[JOhn]

I can't believe i spelled acne wrong. Looked like she was having aches. She has that too, but not what I was talking about. Thanks for the reply.

John