AC over a 24 hour period?

bak94

My second opinion onc, is recommending dose dense AC, but AC administered at a hospital over 24 hours to less the damage it could do to my heart. I already had AC 8 years ago 4 treatment every three weeks. This onc. has all my recordes and said I could have more AC, and he is talking doing 6 treatments! I have internal mammry nodes that are positive, so I do want to go aggressive, but I don't want treatment to hurt me! WHere could I find info on this, I have never heard of this method.

bak94

Anybody heard of this?

Braveheart

I'm sorry I can't be of any help. I just wanted to see how you're doing.

Megadotz

I would be very careful about doing another series of adriamycin.  I would definitely get another opinion before going forward on this, preferably from an NCI-recognized cancer center.  Here's a link to help you find one:

https://cissecure.nci.nih.gov/factsheet/FactSheetSearch1_2.aspx

Also check with a cardiologist before going forward -- having to have a 24 hour stay in hospital sounds like there's a substantial risk with this approach.  Check out the research section of the site and see if there are any articles about this in the chemotherapy section.   This just sounds rather non-standard.

Hope you find some solid answers about this.

Meg

Fearless_One

I would seek a second opinion.   I have read you are not supposed to have the same chemo regimen more than once.   If you are going to do it, make him authorize a MUGA scan for you before you begin .

Sassa

Adriamycin is very irritating to the bladder lining and can cause bladder cancer to develop in the future.  It is supposed to be infused quickly and cleared from the body by urination as fast as possible.

For that reason, the drug is dyed red and a patient is told to drink lots of water to cause urination and to keep drinking until the urine no longer shows any pink color.

I would be worried about having the drug administered over 24 hours.

bak94

I went with the 24 hour drip, it was my second opinion. I do have a muga before each treatment. Yes, it is risky, but after 3 treatments my tumor in my breast was virtually undetectable by ct and nodes shrank significantly. The bladder cancer is scary, but they give me fluids the whole time I am in the hospital and they watch over my pee, to make sure I am also drinking enough fluids. Thank you for the information. I did check to make sure I am not exceeding the lifetime amount of ac, although as you get closer to that amount, the more risk. I just felt it was my best option to go agressive.

My first opinion was abraxane over a 12 week period, I felt that was not agressive enough. I am doing abraxane with carbo after I am done with ac. Funny thing is, last time i went through this I had a harder time with taxol than ac. AC has been doable this time, but definitly more side effects than last time, probably because I am doing it every 2 weeks instead of 3.

susan_02143

Fearless, You are incorrect. You can do the same chemo more than once. In fact, that is why we all generally get only 4 A/C's as the first line, so that we have 4 more full doses in reserve. The taxol families are also very often used a second time.

bkj, My sister had 48 hr drips, in the hospital, twice a month for 6 months. However, she was being treated for a t-cell lymphoma and was part of a Phase 1 study. Good luck with your treatments.