Doxil, what can you tell me about this chemo treatment?

Chirps and Noni, The good news is the pain and nausea are gone! The bad news is I had blood work yesterday and after 1 round of Doxil my tumor marker went up 24 points. This is the largest jump Ive ever had, so I am nervous. My MO called tonight to tell me she wants me to have a CT scan when I come back in 2 weeks. She is already talking about changing treatments!?? I had my second treatment yesterday and I feel the doxil has not had time to work.

Has anyone experienced a TM rise after receiving just one round of Doxil??

Chirps, Thanks for the link! I am hoping the antibiotic I was on, or the infection I had increased my markers. My MO does the CA 15-3 test. Yesterday was day 1 after receiving my chemo and I felt great all day! Today I am nauseous and feel week. Such a change from yesterday. My MO wants me to come in the day before my next chemo and get blood work and tumor markers done. Based on those results she will decide to either stay the course or move to something else. I feel she is always too quick to move on, never giving a drug its full potential. I hope you are now past the side effects for this past round. When does your MO plan to do a scan?

Robin my MO plans scans every 12 weeks AFAIK. Every 3 doxil Tx.

What are your enzymes called? That is fantastic!

I 'd suspect your fatigue is at least in part due to the iv steroids wearing off. Although I was told I'd probably see this on day 3. I did feel very fine on day 1 and day 2. Do your nausea meds help?

Sorry but I really don't know what to say about your concern about mo. Seems before even she suspected giving insufficient time to one of yours. I wonder if you could consult another mo. I think its important to have confidence in mo. This also makes me wonder if there are nccn guidelines for this kind of thing.

My blood work came back fine on Friday. I was given magic mouthwash (of course my insurance wouldn't cover it, 47.00 later...) for mouth sores, that she think are also in my throat. She looked and said it didn't look like strep, but she put me on Augmentin for 7 days, after I told her we were leaving on vacation in 3 weeks. Still having issues swallowing anything harder than yogurt. I think it's a little better. Of course, I forgot to ask her about the acid refux, since I had been dealing with the sore throat, and that was my main concern (I will ask the PA at the next appointment). Next chemo (number 3) is the 28th. Having CT and Bone scans, the second week in May.

Robin, I am sorry to hear of all your troubles. My oncologist has always waited after 3 months before scan

If you ladies haven't tried this already, for when you require soft foods, using something like nutri bullet is something you might find helpful. It pulverizes foods to make drinkable. And adding ice can help make it refreshing or numbing ... sort of. Higher wattage than magic bullet. You get benefits of fiber and etc in the foods, unlike juicer.

Also Robin one bco member mentioned tm going up while on effective chemo, will try to get more info as to references. Am traveling so on.off Internet.

I looked up a tm lab for me and it doesn't appear to go up when I have this active cancer. Sounds like this marker isn't too helpful to me in my current case! I had to postpone labs from Friday to today so maybe I'll learn something later...

Noni, so sorry to hear of your troubles. I hope it gets better with time. I had radiation on my spine, 5 years ago, when the cancer first returned. I did 10 sessions, and did not get any relief from the pain (I did this after I had a kyphoplasty on a compression fracture in a vertebra), but did not have the stomach issues, and I had them laying on my back, not my stomach, because of the back pain.

Chirps, thanks for the info on nutri bullet.

The magic mouthwash and/or Augmentin worked. It took almost the entire week to get back to normal swallowing (I lived on yogurt, applesauce, popsicles and ice cream too), but it's better now. Only issue I have now is after a week of diarrhea from the antibiotic (even with taken an probiotic every day), my entire bottom is raw and sore and I think I have another yeast infection. Have only had 2 in my entire life (I'm 55), and have now had one every time I've been on an antibiotic (3 times) in the past 6 months. If it's not one thing it's another! Tomorrow, is my 3rd chemo day for Doxil. I hope it goes as well as the 2nd one! I will be getting scans the Monday after I come back from vacation (the 16th) to see if this drug worked, and blood work and results that Fri (although I get my scan results the next day, when I pick up the scans and reports from radiology, I like to know ahead of time).

Hi Mame. I don't seem to get the mouth sores till about 2 weeks after chemo. I rinse my mouth all the time with water and brush after each meal, and I still end up with sores. I haven't tried ice drinks, but I do drink water and juice during the chemo, I even have eaten a sandwich , the past two times since it was lunchtime.

I have had fatigue, worse the first week. I don't eat much for the first few days after, a little nauseous, but the compazine helps. Never have been sick. I also have the hand foot syndrome. I had it on xeloda too. My feet were worse then, this time my fingertips are taken a beating. I take vitamin b6 .for it, it helps. I use Udderly Smooth cream in the am, and Vaseline with socks in the pm. I also get the scrambled thinking. The wrong words come out, or I repeat myself. I just tell my husband and kid s to just go with it.

I hope this helps and good luck on Doxil.

Keetmom,

Sorry you have to join us! I too went from Xeloda to Doxil, thinking that I would be losing my hair, it has thinned (as it did with my other treatments), but 85 % don't lose their hair. I've had 3 treatments (once a month), and still have my hair (and it's down to my waist). Good luck with your biopsy! I'm having my scans tomorrow, to see if the Doxil is working.

Lynne

Doxil Folk,

After Halaven for 14 months*, I'm joining y'all in Doxil land.

From what I have read, some of you have had digestive troubles, nausea and stomach emptying issues. I am armed with Zoran, Compazine and Reglan. I've also added some probiotics - thanks to your collective wisdom!

You've said that blood counts will be at their lowest from day 10-14. Does that feel like anything? I have had slightly low RBCs, but have no idea what neutropenia might feel like.

How long does the infusion take?

Most of you kept your hair, it seems like. I'm am super bald from the Halaven, and would welcome some sort of fuzz.

Thanks for all your advice and information. I'll be having my first infusion next week, and am looking forward to a one on/three off schedule. They've not mentioned showing up for lab work mid-cycle. How many of you have had to do that?

* I took a four month CMF break, as Halaven was hard.

Had a allergic reacton no Doxil for me...had 2 drops of meds

Throat swelled shut, coughing, turned bright red, it was scary..just a few drops of the drug

STarting Taxol on Monday, seem ok today....they filled me with drugs and made me do a bag of fluids...ok now

Had my first infusion of Doxil yesterday, after a two week break having finished with Halaven.

It was stunningly routine. They accessed the port, took labs, and started saline while waiting for the labs.

Labs came back fine, so they started the pre-meds, Aloxi (anti-emetic) and Dexamethasone (steroid). That took about 30 minutes. After clearing all saline from the line with dextrose, because Doxil is mixed with dextrose, and turns into Doxyrubin in a saline environment, they started the Doxil with a really slow drip. For the next two fifteen minute segments, they checked on my response to the infusion, slightly bumping up the drip speed each time. When I showed that I probably wouldn't be having an adverse reaction, they set me at the standard drip rate. Next time, I should get the standard 90 minute infusion.

At home, I had some lip/mouth sensitivity, the bottom of my feet felt hot, and I was pretty tired. All that has resolved by this morning.

I had read that some people taking Doxil have to get an echocardiogram before treatment, and show up for weekly labs during treatment. I was told that this is not standard practice in the Stage 4 breast cancer cohort. The feeling is that they don't want to know every little detail about cardiac troubles, as then they would have to discontinue Doxil. Once a month seems fine to check in on the old ticker through the labs and reported symptoms. Perhaps it is because my blood pressure is consistently 120/75 ish and I remain quite active.

I am hoping to have a good response to this drug. I must say - I had a lesion on my hip giving me trouble, and this morning I haven't felt a squeak from it.

Thanks for the very helpful description, Kristie, of your experiences with Doxil. It sounds like you take oral steroids daily, woulld you tell us what and how much? I am having a painful skin rash at the top insides of my legs, and itching on my back in the last few days. I don't want these symptoms to get worse, but I am not eager to have large amounts of steroids in my system, either. A small dose might be ok for me. I will bring his up at my next infusion, in 10 days. I also am seeing and feeling tight, red skin on my palms. I can use the same stuff I used with Xeloda for that. Mouth sores come and go, and I find that salt and baking soda rinsing is helpful twice a day. Italics got switched on by mistake.....

Fatigue hit me hard days 10 to 15 pr so, so I was really dragging then this month. I am better, but my overall stamina is reduced from before Doxil. Thanks again for sharing, it was very helpful to me. How are you others doing right now?

Thanks, Geeper! This kind of info is so helpful. You had a good run with that treatment, 11 months is a long stint. How are you doing now