Blood Toxicity with any treatment

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thria157
thria157 Member Posts: 37
edited October 2019 in Stage IV/Metastatic Breast Cancer ONLY

Hi all,

I wish all the best to all of you. My mother with MBC since 2013, currently with mets on bone and liver. She was on ibrance but due to blood toxicity she struggled to complete cycles hence a liver progression came. Currently on Abraxane, struggling to complete cycles, either due to low red or low platelets.

She had bone marrow involvement but that was years ago and didn't appear again.

Are you aware of any treatments that are less toxic for the blood?

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  • vlnrph
    vlnrph Member Posts: 1,632
    edited October 2019

    Verzenio, generic name abemaciclib, is in the same class of CDK 4/6 inhibitors as Ibrance but does not affect blood counts to the same degree. Because of that toxicity profile it can be taken daily, with no breaks. I see you have already inquired about it during the summer on the thread specific to it.

    However, since your mom progressed on the prior treatment, it may not be something her doctor would select anyway (also because it is also very expensive). Have they proposed other chemotherapies?

    It is a hard truth to accept but at some point we run out of reasonable options and need to consider hospice when there are no good choices left.

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  • S3K5
    S3K5 Member Posts: 606
    edited October 2019

    thria157 , sorry to hear about your mother's struggles with the treatment regimens. If Ibrance was too hard on her, then her MO may put her on other regimens, which are not in the same class of CDK inhibitors.

    Abraxane can lower the WBC and platelets, but a shot of growth factors (Nuelasta or Nupogen) may help maintain the blood counts. Or her MO may decide to reduce the dose of Abraxane.

    I have had bone mets since 6 years and when Ibrance failed, I was put on Gemzar. My liver mets progressed on Gemzar, so I am on Taxol now since 6 months. Initially, Taxol caused a lot of side effects but after optimizing the dosage, it is tolerable now. I take Nupogen 3 days after I get Taxol. My blood count have been stable.

    Hope your Mom's MO figures out something tolerable to keep the disease stable. Did your mom have a genetic mutation test done?

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  • thria157
    thria157 Member Posts: 37
    edited October 2019

    thanks both for you response. Hope the best for you.

    She is having a lot of shots of WBC growth factors and her WBC is very stable. Unfortunately the platelets remain the main issue at the moment. Abraxane works really well for her in the first cycle the CA15:3 reduced by 55%. But then the platelets issue come over.

    The doctors suggest to take a platelets growth factor called Nplate but it’s not usually for cancer patients. So she doesn’t want to take it.

    The plan is to reduce the CA15:3 bellow 500 and then move back to targeted therapy. Money is not an issue because the insurance covers them all in Greece.

    She has done a genetic mutation test and showed that the cancer is still the same but the her2 is 1 instead of 0.

    Also the reproduction pace has increased to around 20% but still considers to be low.

    I guess the only option now is to take more breaks and adjust the dose.

    Is there anything else you will suggest ?


    thnaks so much

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