Beginning chemo - gemcitabine and tarceva

sarebear · New User Joined: 01 Apr 2009 Posts: 6

My mother has been diagnosed officially with PC as of April 13, 2009. It was suspected as the probable diagnosis on March 30. She had a biliary drainage bag for about a week and the bag was removed this week, leaving a reinforced stent internally. Her red blood cell count was 5.(something) and is to have a blood transfusion tomorrow (2 units).

She will begin chemo next week with 3 weeks gemcitabine on, 1 off. She will also be taking Tarceva orally. This is an aggressive therapy, is it not? I have scanned the posts but would like to hear any personal experiences with these therapies. She has a tumor in the head of her pancreas with lesions in her liver (one is approx. 2 inches). More scans are scheduled soon.

Thank you!

audib · Regular Joined: 29 Jun 2007 Posts: 36

My Father in Law had almost the same regiment for many months. This is kind of the standard although there are some variations with some different chemos depending upon how the tumor reacts. His numbers went down quite alot in the beginning months but gradually starting to climb. They gave my FIL 6 months and he lived for 22 so it definitely gave him many more months to live and most were of good quality.
. Just ask about what to expect so you know-my FIL would feel fine right after the chemo for 2-3 days and then he would get a fever and feel very tired for a few days. Once he knew his pattern, they planned things on the good days and knew he was in the house on the bad days. On the week or two that he was off of chemo, he felt pretty good.
Good luck to your mom

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