Ibrance (Palbociclib)
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Tanya, this is not a cure for hot flashes but can help you sleep better. If your flashes are like mine were, they come quickly, put you in a sweat, then leave you freezing. Slip the Chillow in your pillow case and keep a blanket handy for the soon-to-follow "cold flash". the other thing I found is that the hot flashes often follow soon after eating sugar. You might pay attention and see if that's true for you. Giving up sugar can help regain some control.
I pray that your scans show wonderful results and that you and your husband both have peace. Remember not to exercise for 24 hours before.
nonahope, is there a reason you aren't getting a PET scan? I pray that your results are good.
https://www.amazon.com/CHILLOW-Pillow-Cooling-Pad-...=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1506545099&sr=8-2&keywords=chillow
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Pat....I was told that a CT scan is more detailed than PET because PET can only exhibit the areas where the tracer is located. Maybe, that's why, but I really don't know. Thank you for your support! I'm a nervous Nellie but you gals have eased my fear a bit with this first scan. I can't tell you how glad I was to find this thread!
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Thanks 50sgirl, Cure-ious, PatgMc, and pedsnurse for insight and encouragement. I've been off sugar but had a cookie just to celebrate today.
Tanya, good luck with your scans - hopefully you'll share good news soon.
Nonahope, I had a PET early for overview, but MO will do only CT's going forward. As you said, they are more detailed, and PET can be unreliable, showing false positives where an area might be healing, for example. Praying for good news from you, too!
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I'm sure there are good reasons for the type scans we get which probably have to do with location of mets and who-knows-what-else? I have always had PET/CT scans and an MRI once when we suspected brain mets (which I didn't have!)
Here's to fabulous and wonderful scans of all kinds this week!
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Thanks for the chillow recommendation. Until I figured out that I needed to click the link I had no idea what you were talking about.
Many thanks.
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Good morning...
Jaylea...That's exactly what my oncologist said about PET vs. CT scans. I'm already psyching myself up for my scans tomorrow. Didn't sleep well last night due to the anxiety and probably will not sleep a wink tonight!
May we all receive good results this week!
Hope
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Hope, I will send you good vibes for tomorrow's scan. How soon will you receive the results?
Lynne
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Lynne...Thanks! I will see my oncologist on Oct.5. The results may come to my online portal before I see him. But, in all honesty, I will not open it for fear of seeing bad news. I will wait until I see him to get results.
Hope
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The scan choices seem to be influenced by many things. I have heard that many insurances won't pay for follow up PET. My doctor seemed fine with either one and since I am allergic to CT contrast dye and would need heavy premedication we are using PET. I have also heard that scans aren't accurate in ILC often, but, don't know the variables on that. Some ILC cancers have IDC components as well.
A tangled web
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There has been discussion here about the use of proton pump inhibitors for heartburn while taking Ibrance and also the use of green tea. In Canada, all women receiving Ibrance are receiving it as part of a clinical trial or on a special access program. These programs are managed by Bayshore Pharmacy, which supplies the drugs. I spoke to the Byshore pharmacist about these two issues today.
She said that as long as Ibrance is taken with food, a proton pump inhibitor is allowed and will not affect the level of Ibrance.
The information about green tea comes from a single petri dish study and is considered "very weak evidence". She assured me that consumption of green tea as a beverage is safe but didn't recommend green tea extract as the concentrations are unknown.
I hope that others will find this information reassuring. Moderation in all things
Jo
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Thanks for the info, Jo. I take Prilosec (a proton pump inhibitor) as needed for gastritis. I always worry when I see things about taking it with Ibrance. I figure my drug list is out there with my MO and other doctors but I take a lot of stuff. Do they check it all carefully? And my regular pharmacy is Walgreen's and they don't know about the Ibrance because I get that from a specialty pharmacy. So much to keep track of. I always tell people that being sick is like having a full time job. Now to go look for a new grant to cover my Ibrance co-pay. The one I have now is about to run out. And you can't apply for a new one until your current one is GONE, completely gone. Zero dollars. I wonder if Pfizer is being generous with the foundations right now. You know that's where the "charitable" foundations get their money, right? The drug companies. Wouldn't want another Epi Pen situation.
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So when I started on this journey one year ago , with bone mets and Peritoneal Carcinomatosis the Doc put me on Ibrance 125 and faslodex . After a couple of months my wbc started to go down so I was put on 100 . Well I had been on ibrance 100 for awhile and my tumor markers started to go up .I started freaking out and about two weeks ago my doctor put back up to 125 . I feel great ,my stomach even feels good but my tumor markers haven't gone down they still are climbing . Doctor say to give it another month on Ibrance 125 and see what happens since I feel good and he also said he doesn't go by TM , My quertion is has anybody out there been though the same thing and what happed ? Thank for you time
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The 3rd drug has been approved and will be available in October. Read through the article and see that no one will pay more than $10 each month for the first year. For those of you paying out the nose for Ibrance, this may be a good option. The other interesting thing is that this was also approved as a stand-alone without hormone therapy. Google and find the other articles that tell more details of the trial.
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Such great news! Thanks for the heads-up, Pat!
Would this drug be used in combination with Ibrance or only if and when progression has occurred on Ibrance and the use of Ibrance is terminated?
What does this mean, "when added to standard therapy"? See below from the article:
In a pivotal clinical trial, abemaciclib when added to standard therapy reduced the risk of disease progression by 46 percent. It also led to significant tumor shrinkage in 59 percent of patients compared with 44 percent of those who received endocrine drugs alone in the study.
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I think it said with faslodex.
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https://www.fda.gov/NewsEvents/Newsroom/PressAnnouncements/ucm578071.htm
Sorry. This is where I saw about it being used in combo with faslodex.
The diarrhea is a total non-starter for me. Can't do it.
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Yes, the trial added the new drug to hormone therapy, much like the Ibrance trial did with Femara. The bonus on this one is that it can also be prescribed without the Fazlodex. We know that some people feel many of their side effects are from the hormone therapy. (I struggled with Femara and would have to think long and hard before wrestling with that one again. I take Arimidex with the Ibrance, am using Turmeric with it and have no joint aches. Win!!)
I can't wait to see how all the various dosing trials for these drugs will turn out. I'm especially awaiting results on the one at MD Anderson that uses one-fifth of the dose and adds a second drug to keep the cells from becoming resistant....How exciting is that?!
Don't forget, my friends, that us chicks are the pioneers! One day people will say, "Remember back before Ibrance when women with MBC actually took chemotherapy with all its nightmares?!" We'll be doddering old ladies dying from nothing while playing tennis!! (I've never played tennis but I might start when I'm 95!)
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I hope and pray they are on their way for something really good for women like us ! Peace and Blessing
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Pat. Is there a name or number for the one at MDA? That sounds very interesting.
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I have finally caught up in reading most of the posts from the last 6 months. Thanks for the updated information Pat on the newest treatment out. I love reading your posts, they are all so positive and are really helpful.
Regarding the scans, my Mo just does cat scans. She also said insurance can give a hard time with Pet scans. If I remember correctly, pet scans may not pick up very small areas on the lungs( which I have). But I am not sure if I am remembering this correctly. Memory has definitely taken a hit from all this cancer stuff!
Is anyone in the New England area going to the Dana Farber conference on mbc in October?
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Abemaciclib is now FDA-approved, wonderful!
Unlike Ibrance, it does have anti-cancer activity on its own, and works by a different mechanism, so Abemaciclib-Faslodex becomes an option after progression on Ibrance-Femara. The approval is based on a clinical trial of 669 patients with HR+/HER2- breast cancer that had progressed after treatment with endocrine therapy and who had not received chemotherapy once the cancer had metastasized. Patients who took Verzenio with fulvestrant's median progression-free survival was 16.4 months compared to 9.3 months for patients taking a placebo with fulvestrant. Compared to Ibrance, neutropenia is less of a problem (but still occurs) and diarrhea is common.
But the company says...the diarrhea observed in trials was "highly predictable and readily manageable" with the OTC remedy loperamide, better known as Imodium. It "tended to reverse after a few days," he said, noting that "by the time you get to the third cycle, only about 2% of patients were bothered."
Verzenio completely eliminated cancer in 16 patients across two major phase 3 studies, he noted, and among patients who have "more concerning characteristics"—such as metastases to the liver, or disease that has returned rapidly—"abemaciclib tends to do particularly well," he said.
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Would it be an option after progression on ibrance - Faslodex? Thanks, Cure-ious.
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Thanks Cure-ious. This gives us hope beyond Ibrance since I am 18 cycles in.
Praying that everyone has a joyful day.
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Joyner- for some cancers it has activity on its own, and it is in trials in other drug combinations, so its great to have this drug FDA-approved- if you had some positive responses to Ibrance, this is good..
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This article discusses some interesting things about price. My onc nurse was complaining about a new drug not having different doses. No dose reduction possible. With Kisqali, Novartis is doing a different price for a different dose, lower dose half price. From this article:
"Novartis, however, offers flex pricing: The company offers a 400-mg dose for $8,760 and a 200-mg dose for $4,380. At the time Kisqali launched, Novartis said it had undercut Pfizer's aggregate Ibrance cost by about 18% to 20%."
No mention of efficacy of the different doses.
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I get my Xgeva shots in my belly fat and never feel more than a tiny initial sting, if that. Mine must all be room-temp as they mix them up in the lab right beforehand. My nurse injects very slowly, too. I love her, I really do. I've come a long way to be able to laugh and joke during injections from a childhood shot-phobia due to having received a large number of rabies shots in my belly as a two year old!
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About Kisqali, click the "flex-pricing" link and you find this:
"A 28-day supply of the 600-mg dose will cost $10,950, while the same supply of the 400-mg dose will go for $8,760 and the 200-mg dose will run at $4,380."
This was from March. Looks like they dropped the 600 mg dose. Still no mention of efficacy differences in different doses. Would be nice to know.
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Another advantage of abemaciclib is that it readily crosses the blood brain barrier. Thus it may work for brain metastasis.
It will be great news if a patient can get a couple of years of benefit from palbociclib, and then switch to abemaciclib and get more. That remains to be seen. It certainly works differently. They say it is 14x more targeted to cdk4 than the others.
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I have a question. It was my understanding that Kisquali works better for Tnc, than ER+. Am I wrong? I may be remembering incorrectly.
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Home from my first scan after being In Ibrance 125/Letrozole for 3 months. It was a long morning, early afternoon. I will see my oncologist on Thursday, Oct.5. If I get the results on my online portal, I doubt I will open it....just makes me too nervous! Am I the only crazy one when it comes to opening those results prior to hearing from their doc???
Hope
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