Chemo options for brain mets after CyberKnife

[Shahyan]

Hi,


I would also suggest Gemzar w carboplatin and Herception which is what my mother is on and she has shown a 50% response, with the Grace of God. I however, feel that her supplements i.e. Boswella Serrata has also been a great help.

Hope this helps

[Annemarie]

I have had brain mets 3 times. NED else where in the body. Herceptin seems to be doing its job there. I take Temodar monthly and Femara. I am looking forward to Tykerb. I am a seven year survivor.

[heblaj01]

To the info I reported in a previous post in this thread regarding Panzem, here are some dramatic pictures of the efficacy of the Panzem+Temodar combo in mice: see pages 12 & 13 at http://www.entremed.com/download/pdf...esentation.pdf

This combo is in phase 2 clinical trial at Duke University & is still enrolling patients.

[Joe]

Emmay,

I see you are in the Boston Area. You may wish to contact Dr. Eric Winer at Dana Farber who is currently doing research on various combinations of drugs with Tykerb to treat brain mets. He may offer you some valuable advice.

Regards
Joe

[Emmay]

Thanks for the heads up, Joe.

My sister's last MRI (one month post-cyberknife) looked quite good, but it's still early to tell whether the Sorafenib/Temodar combo is having a positive effect in addition to radiation rx. The next MRI should be more indicative. My sister is tolerating both agents well (no rash), after switching to Zofran to control the nausea from Temodar.

She was on an early Lapatinib (Tykerb) trial Feb-Mar '05, but it did not work as a single agent (she was off Herceptin from 1/05-3/05 for a trip and then the trial). She then had an additional craniotomy, and has been treated with focalized radiation as necessary since then, and continues with Herceptin every 3 weeks.

My sister's medical oncologist often collaborates with Dr. Winer in clinical trials (as with the early Lapatinib one). I have asked him(her oncologist) about combining Tykerb with Herceptin or other agent to see if there would be a synergistic benefit. We are waiting to see how she responds to the Sorafenib/Temodar rx(not a clinical trial but closely monitored by her neuro-oncologist), and if that is not exerting enough control, we'll look for other options. I'll be certain to post our experience here, and welcome and appreciate the shared experience and suggestions from others on this board.

Of the two of us, I'm the web-savvy sister, so I'm the active one on this site, but I want to let readers know that my sister has been remarkably resilient through all of her treatments since the beginning. She is a bit more easily fatigued (was very zippy before), not quite as agile as before (though still driving, walking the dog, working out at Curves, etc), and her short-term memory is a little weaker than mine (I'm 55 and it's not perfect for me either- maxed-out hard-drive;-) but her long-term memory is amazing and her sense of humor is as sharp as ever.