What medications are used after your first four round of chemotherapy?

Question

I have a friend with breast cancer and she has 4 more rounds to go but with a different type of chemo medication.

Answer 1

Ask your friend. There are many different types of cancer medications for each type of cancer. Much depends upon the stage and grade of the tumors and the patients response to the chemotherapy. So . . there isn't just one answer . . it just depends. Sometimes a doctor will elect to go with a single chemo and sometimes the chemo will work better in combinations. Here is a list of chemotherapy drugs that you can look through:

Individual Chemotherapy Drugs
http://www.cancerbackup.org.uk/Treatments/Chemotherapy/Individualdrugs

ACS: Chemotherapy Principles
http://www.cancer.org/docroot/ETO/eto_1_3_Chemotherapy_Principles.asp

Professional Cancer Drug Manual
http://www.bccancer.bc.ca/HPI/DrugDatabase/DrugIndexPro/default.htm

Answer 2

I wouldnt take anything without running it by your oncologist. Even vitamins can interact with chemo drugs and alter their effectiveness.

One of the vitamins people seem to recommend (I forget what it is) is what the cancer cells produce and the chemo is supposed to fight it and why would you take it and make it work against the chemo? Never take anything without your doctor's permission.

They often give Prednisone or some type of steroid to keep the white blood cells up too, as the chemo will lower platelets etc.

This is why they constantly monitor your blood and there is a "low" period about a week or two after chemo that you "dip" and then recover from.

They have really good anti-nausea meds now but they are very expensive, $20 or more a pill. Usually the nausea passes a few days after the chemo. Every case is different and it's hard to say what drugs will be used. It depends on the cancer (there are so many variables) and it's staging and how it's responding to treatment etc. that determines what the doctors may change in the treatment protocol.

The chemo does work and I hope your friend will hang in there. She will make it through. Keep her spirits up and give her hope.

Answer 3

I am not quite sure of what you are meaning.... if you are meaning which chemo drugs are used next... each case uses different combinations of drugs. Therefore, what one person was on for chemo, may be different than someone else. I myself was on two drugs for five days, then three weeks later on three other ones, and back and forth. Perhaps they are changing the drugs to try to "trick" the cancer cells, as is what i was told by my doctor as for the reason of switching back and forth between chemotherapy drugs.

As for taking any other medications, make sure that before any drugs are taken, that it is discussed with the doctor, as some drugs can interfere or have a bad reaction when mixed with other drugs.

I myself was on etoposide, ifosfamide for the five day rounds, and vincristine, cyclofosfamide, and one other drug for the one day cycle. On top of these i was on a whole bunch of meds for nausea (nabilone, metoclopramide, stemetil, etc).

Answer 4

Chemo unfortunately kills the good cells along with the cancer cells.You should tell her about a nutritional supplement called Beta1,3-D Glucan.It is widely used in Asia since the 1980s.It has shown a remarkable anti-tumor activity against a wide range of tumors.It also helps people undergoing radiation or chemotherapy by boosting the immune system.Look it up at www.dna911.info Nutritional support is critical at this point in time.

Answer 5

Chinese medicine can help to go through the treatment easier:

http://www.shen-nong.com/eng/exam/specialties_cancerchemotherapy.html