Number of lines of treatment

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Batfax
Batfax Member Posts: 45
edited May 2017 in Stage IV/Metastatic Breast Cancer ONLY

All,

I'm a lurker who rarely posts, but I feel compelled to solicit the input of some of you who have been around the block with treatments. My wife was diagnosed stage 4 with mets in the liver and nodes throughout the abdomen a little less than two years ago. Since then we've tried taxol (worked for about 8 months), Ibrance (maybe two months, if at all), the exemestane + everolimus + ribociclib trial (maybe two months, if at all), Xeloda (maybe five months) and now Halaven. Unfortunately, it seems as if the Halaven either never worked or has stopped working after only about one months. Her tumor markers are rising slightly, and they've always been a reliable indicator of progression. Additionally, she's had slight ascites and her abdominal nodes/liver mets have been causing a lot of abdominal/gastointestinal discomfort and she's dropped a lot of weight off an already small frame.

So, I suppose what I'm looking for is any insight folks have on trying this many lines of treatment. If Halaven has failed, she's going to be moving on to her sixth line. And from what I've been able to research, there's very little data on the efficacy of this many lines and it appears that each successive line of treatment has a lower chance of success. Looking for a little reassurance or some insight. Thanks.

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  • Batfax
    Batfax Member Posts: 45
    edited May 2017

    Bumping as we have an abdominal ct this evening. Hoping for good results and preparing for the worse.

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  • blainejennifer
    blainejennifer Member Posts: 1,848
    edited May 2017

    Don't call it quits on Halaven just yet. Her TMs could be rising because of tumor flare. Wait to see the results from the CT. Look for increase/decrease of SUV for the lesions, as size can also increase as a result of necrotic inflammation.

    Hold steady. None of this is fun, is it?

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  • Batfax
    Batfax Member Posts: 45
    edited May 2017

    Thanks. We decided with the onco yesterday to go ahead with the Halavan infusion and we'll wait to see what the scan shows. I hate when we get them on Fridays and then have to spend the whole weekend trying to think of anything else.

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  • jensgotthis
    jensgotthis Member Posts: 937
    edited May 2017

    Have you discussed taking a biopsy of the liver met to see if receptors have changed? I don't know much about treatment lines and hope others will weigh in. Hope the scans give you news that can linebacker up a good pla

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