docetaxol, paciltaxol - switching

maya99 · August 2016

Hello - I have stage 4 BC with mets in my brain, liver and lungs. I am on herceptin, perzutumab and docetaxol. I have had two cycles of the docetaxol and have had quite a tough time with infections (have been on antibiotics both cycles), very bad diarrhea, thrush, generally feeling unwell and fatigued.

My medical team do not think its good for me to be so unwell and want to switch me to weekly pacitaxol. I'm concerned because i had 2-weekly pacitaxol 4 times during my primary diagnosis back in 2013 and it must not have worked as I now have secondary disease. Also the evidence on herceptin, perzutumab has been conducted with docetaxol so it's not clear whether pacitaxol will have the same impact.

Any thoughts??

Thanks

Maya

Moderators · August 2016

Dear maya99, Sorry your are dealing with all of this. Does anyone have any thoughts on this for maya? The Mods

pwilmarth · August 2016

There was a discussion about this on OncLive on managing HER2+ MBC. The opinion of one of the lead investigators in the Cleopatra study is that it doesn't matter. You can you use either - she just can't give you any data supporting its use.

pwilmarth · August 2016

HER2+ MBC treatment

There was a discussion about this on OncLive on managing HER2+ MBC. The opinion of one of the lead investigators in the Cleopatra study is that it doesn't matter. You can you use either

So this would come down to "physician preference" and it sounds like your MO feels that the side effects (toxicity) of paciltaxol would be less.

Just remember that the goal is to complete 4 to 6 cycles of one of the taxanes. Otherwise the choice is to stop the taxane early.

In choosing paciltaxol, you will receive weekly doses instead of every three weeks. I suspect that means more cycles of the taxanes - in other words, how many cycles do you need to meet the 4 to 6 cycles of docetaxol?

docetaxol, paciltaxol - switching

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