Gemcitabine / Carboplatin

Hi Karen, there are a couple threads on it but not very active. But you can get a sense of people's experiences. Search for gemzar in addition to gemcitabine and it brings up most of them I think. Some people take it with carboplatin & some with cisplatin. Here's one with a few detailed posts https://community.breastcancer.org/forum/8/topics/...

Gemzar/carboplatin is on my MOs list of 'what's next when this stops working' (along with Xeloda) so I'm keeping an eye on these threads myself. I'm an over-preparer lol.

hope this one does the trick for you & gives you a long regression or stable time and few SEs!

how's your port incision doing? Mine healed up so quickly & I'm so glad to have the port now (I didn't in 2018)

My sigline is utd - taxol & tecentriq. I am technically stable as tumor volume is same but I had liver mets shrink & lung met grow so I'm having a lung biopsy (primarily to test hormone markers & if they get enough samples, genomic testing too) & then will be in a radiation trial to treat that lung met with rads. But as long as the liver mets keep responding, the plan is to stay on taxol & tecentriq

Imagine, how are you doing? I might be starting this combo soon.

Imagine, thanks for getting back to me. I hope you're hanging in there okay. I remember your other post about failing treatments and what's next. It looks like this combo might be next for me too. I've had significant progression on Ibrance and then Xeloda and it's getting a bit scary. Liver and probable lung involvement now. Would you say it's been similar to TC chemo when you were early stage, or easier than that?

It's great that you might have some other options. I hope it goes well for you!

Hi Holly, I've found the nausea to be very manageable with anti-nausea meds. As for hair loss, I think I might notice a bit more hair coming out in my brush, but it's not noticeable to anyone else or even by looking at me. My sister even commented on how thick my hair looks these days! All things considered I'd say chemo is never easy, but this regimen has actually caused some regression of my cancer when I was progressing on everything else, so I'm glad I did it. I'll be doing cycle 3 next week. Best wishes to you.

I think I feel worst on days two through four. It's not for all of those days, but I find that just about every cycle I have about a 36 hour period where I am pretty much just in bed. I also had some physical pain that accompanied this chemo regimen, which in my case was actually because the chemo was working and killing the cancer. Even though chemo is never easy (at least for me), I found this regimen to be a overall more tolerable than the TC and AC chemo I did previously.

I'm still on the Gemzar/Carbo combo.

Do you have a port? One thing I will say after a few months of doing Gemzar without a port, is my veins are pretty blown out. (I'm told it's the Gemzar, not the Carbo.) Anyway, if you don't have a port you may want to just get one and save the trouble.

Best wishes for Gemzar, Bliss!

I haven't lost hair on this regimen, which is really nice. I thought I noticed a bit more shedding in my brush, so I was worried, but now I'm a few months in and my hair looks the same as ever.

Bliss, we saw regression after only a four rounds (or two cycles) for me. This regimen cleared up my liver which was great, and it lessened a lot of the cancer in my dura which had been causing me serious problems. My bone lesions got better too, although the response in and around my lungs was somewhat mixed.

I'm not sure if my MO monitors my tumor markers. (Or maybe they do and I just don't know!) I'd be interested to know more about tumor markers - what is measured? I've got a pretty high burden of metastatic disease, so we monitor how well the chemo is working primarily by looking at my imaging. I get regular PET/CT scans and brain MRIs.

My MO said that at some point I might be able to go down to just Gemcitabine, but we are not there yet. Even though this regimen has worked better than Ibrance or hormone therapy for me, my cancer is putting up a hard fight, but we'll see.

Holly, I'm not sure how much longer I'll continue on this regimen. I've been thinking about moving on to something else, if there's another good option for me, but we'll see what my MO says.

Here's a few reasons why: my last PET showed a mixed response. The places where this chemo is not working are causing me more side effects lately, and I want to deal with that if possible. However, this chemo has been awesome in the places it did work, so it was definitely worth doing. That being said, I'm coming out of round eight and it's been hard on my WBC counts. I also had to add Neupogen shots on day 2-3 in addition to the Neulasta on day 9 just to stay afloat. Also I'm just getting tired of the chemo sick feeling. It's easier than TC and AC, yes, but it's still not fun. My hair is still shedding, but it's still not noticeable by looking at me, thankfully.

I have another PET scan and a visit with my MO coming up, so I intend to discuss the plan again then.

Button - yes, after my first round of carbo/gem, my WBC and neutrophils tanked. Even my platelets went down to 500! I was put on Zarxio and have to self-inject on days 2-4. Then after Day 8 (just Gemzar), I get the Neulasta. It seems to be working. I am scheduled to do only 3 full rounds or 6 treatments total. I go in for a CT and bone scan on June 2. I am nervous, since I don't really want to continue on the chemo. But my tumor markers are coming back mixed. My CEA went from 14 to 6 in three weeks. But my CA15-3 is going up. Three weeks ago it was 15 and now it's 23. It was at its lowest on the day that I started the chemo on 3/29 and it was 11. So now I am worried that it's spread to my liver or more bone involvement and the carbo/gem is not getting at those areas. But I have seen that sometimes those numbers go up while undergoing chemo treatment. I guess the CT and bone scan will tell the story. As for the COVID vaccine, I got Pfizer. The first shot was right after my first round of Day 8 gemzar and my arm got sore. My neutrophil count was around 880 at the time. One week later, I got a reaction - low grade fever, arm sore again and swelling around the injection area. It didn't last long. I have a feeling my WBC kicked into gear and noticed the protein spike since it was a week later and my immune system was near or at its lowest. The second shot was again after a Day 8 gemzar infusion (but this time I was on Neulasta). The side effects came right after - arm soreness and low grade fever which I took Tylenol for (after getting it approved by the MO). The low grade fever lasted about 24-36 hours and then I was good after that.

my first infusion of gemzar this am. Not in combo with anything. Did you all have any premeds? I had 500 ml of fluid and 12 mg of dexamethasone. I did have some nausea in the way home and took some zofran.

Hi, everyone, 👋🏻

I’m starting this combo on Friday, one of the last treatments available to me. I’m hoping it works on my extensive skin mets. When do side effects hit? Trying to plan ahead.

Thanks,

Libby