Tuesday, October 31, 2017

Initial Good Response to Taxol

It's been a while, so as I wait at the Subaru dealer for my service to be done, and Kay is at Rainier Oncology getting the second infusion of her second 4-week cycle of Taxol for her ovarian cancer I am taking time to report on her status so far.
As previously reported Kay got a nice response to the combination of Taxol plus Avastin, but developed a tiny bowel perforation likely from the Avastin so she had to stop that drug.  After a break from treatment to allow the infection to resolve Kay has restarted treatment on weekly Taxol infusions a a single agent.  She gets 3 weeks of Taxol infusions the a one week break to recover, which constitutes a 4-week cycle.
Today she is on week two of cycle 2 of the weekly Taxol infusions. She has been tolerating the Taxol quite well, each week having some fatigue and malaise on the Thursday - Saturday after the Tuesday infusion, but this is only moderate, and she is overall doing better. 
She lost a lot of weight when sick with the bowel perforation, but has started to gain some weight back, and is enjoying eating high calorie foods to accomplish the weight gain.
Initial indicators are that the Taxol is helping.  Her ascites (intra-peritoneal fluid accumulation) seems to have resolved and her CA-125 which had gone up a little when she was off treatment to treat the infection, has gone down by >50% after the first cycle of Taxol.
Pray for continued benefit from the Taxol, minimal side effects, weight gain (for Kay not me ;.) and patience, endurance and tolerance for all involved. 
Thanks.

Ed