Clinical trial changing my chemo plan!

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LillieRose
LillieRose Member Posts: 112
edited April 2015 in Chemotherapy - Before, During, and After

Hi all,


I am stage 2 TNBC, grade 3. I am at Dana Faber in boston and planning to join a Clinical study for TNBC... It is in phase 2 and had to 2 options.... I will either get Cisplatin 1 every 3 weeks for 12 weeks OR I will get Taxol once a week for 12 weeks....

Anyone do Taxol first? I am told that with the trial they with do these treatments and then add the other standard chemo a if for some reason my cancer doesn't respond to the trial....

Thoughts? my doctors told me that I am getting the " future" "today". But I am scared...

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  • SpecialK
    SpecialK Member Posts: 16,486
    edited April 2015

    I am assuming this is the trial?

    http://www.cancer.gov/clinicaltrials/search/view?cdrid=754767&version=HealthProfessional&protocolsearchid=8706662

    I have a young TN friend (BRCA1+) who considered participating in a trial for a drug that would also be given with neoadjuvent Taxol, then surgery would be done so they could study the removed tumor and the drug's effect, then additional chemotherapy continued - so the upshot was to do Taxol first.  She ultimately declined the trial and did AC-T chemo at another facility - she wanted the anthracycline drug first.  She had surgery after 3 of 4 rounds of AC and did not have pCR - she was experiencing some healing difficulties from her port/SNB surgeries so they did her BMX, then she continued with Taxol afterward.  She did 9 of 12 Taxol and then stopped.  My question would be how, and if, they are monitoring whether the Taxol is working during the trial time period - you don't want an aggressive TN tumor that grows during the initial phase of chemotherapy and not find that out until the tumor is removed.

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  • MusicLover
    MusicLover Member Posts: 4,225
    edited April 2015

    SpecialK, Can you explain the purpose of the different chemos?  Is AC meant to shrink the tumor and Taxol is for circulating cancer cells?  Can Taxol shrink the tumor also but that is less likely?

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  • SpecialK
    SpecialK Member Posts: 16,486
    edited April 2015

    music - different drugs do different things -  Adriamycin is an antiobiotic anthracycline drug that works by controlling cell replication through disruption of cell DNA. Cytoxan is an alkylating agent that binds to DNA and interferes with replication, and also has some anti-angiogenic properties that may interfere with tumor blood supply.  Taxol is anti-microtubule and it interrupts cell replication by interfering with the breakdown of microtubules during cell division. All of these drugs interfere with cancer cell growth, but by these different mechanisms - so all conceivably control both tumor growth and circulating cells.  Different drugs work better than others depending on the type of cancer, size, etc. - hormonal receptors, Her2 status, etc., and different combinations may work better than some drugs individually.

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  • wrmbrownie
    wrmbrownie Member Posts: 114
    edited April 2015


    I had Taxol first (tomorrow is #`10.) I asked MO about it and she said that it was because I was doing chemo first before surgery. My tumor/lymph nodes are shrinking thus far on this. I'll do A/C afterwards.

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  • momof32015
    momof32015 Member Posts: 9
    edited April 2015

    lillie, I am in boston as well and was recommended for that study by my MO. He had seen great results with it and highly suggested it. I was not able to participate as I am Braca -. I would have done the trial if I came back +. My understanding was you would receive AC, Cisplatnum, and Taxol. They were just adding an additional chemo drug.

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