can you really die from WBR?

[gdpawel]

flynny

My wife went another 15 months with leptomeningeal carcinomatous (cancer cells getting into the thin sheets [meningies] of body tissue that surround and protect the brain and spine) after chemotherapy (methotrexate) injected into the spinal fluid (via Ommya Reservoir). Without treatment, the median survival of patients is 4-6 weeks and intrathecal chemotherapy increases the median survival to 3-6 months.

Another alternative to Methotrexate is Cytarabine (cytosine arabinoside) or Ara-C. There had been some clinical trials using Temodar (temozolomide) instead of Methotrexate, Ara-C or combination gemcitabine (Gemzar) plus Thiotepa in treating patients with LC from a solid tumor. There have been clinical trials with small molecule-targeted Iressa.

What may be another alternative is high doses of two small molecule drugs, Tarceva (erlotnib) and Iressa (gefitinib), given together. It might cross the blood-brain barrier and some patients may get a long-lived remission with these drugs. High-dose tamoxifen could then be given continuously as a potentiator and an anti-angiogenic effect. This suggestion comes from cell function analysis.