In a nutshell I'm stage 4 and on carbo/taxol/avastin - bevacizumab - and halfway through a cycle of 6 treatments my Dr told me The Cancer Drugs Fund won't allow avastin to be given on its own and can only be given in combination with carbo/taxol. Some old hoohaa about that being the combination tested in English clinical trials, unlike America where they give avastin as a maintenance chemo after the initial combination. I'll be really interested to hear of others experiences with this situation!
Hi ladies, I had taxol/carbo and avastin over 6 treatments but was told I wouldnt be having Avastin as a maintenance drug. My understanding is that Taxol/carbo are traditional chemo drugs which target and kill cells that multiply. Avastin is not a chemo drug but is a protien based one that works in a different way. It targets the blood supply to cells with the aim being to starve them of oxygen so they cant grow. In conjunction with the chemo drugs killing cells, thats where the success has been.
Its worked for me so far! Im Stage 4 and have gone into Clinical Remission!!!!
Have you also seen the new Living with Advanced Cervical Cancer Form on here? Ive joined as another place we can all chat if needed.
My mum is currently in hospital following surgery to remove a tumour in her bowel. Within a month the lypmh nodes were rased and we were told the bowel cancer was aggressve and things didn't look good. My mum had cervical cancer last year and was unable to have a radical hysterectomy but had six weeks of daily radiotherapy and 3 bracytherapy. At Christmas we were told she had responded well and things were looking good.
Two weeks ago the doctors called back and said that they didn't think the ;ymph nodes were raised because of the bowel cancer, but that the cells were more typical of cervical cancer and that it wasn't associated with the bowel cancer and it was just co-incidental that the lymph nodes reacted at that time. So it appears that my mum is unfortunate to have bowel cancer surgery only to be followed by the cervical cancer making a return.
We are now facing further treatments, something we know little about for cervical cancer at this stage. My mum is still very weak and thin at this time following the bowel cancer surgey so we are not in a postion to start chemotherapy or other potential treatment.
We have been told very little about a treatment plan as my mum has only very briefly met an oncologist who came to see her at her bedside.
If cervical cancer is present in the lymph nodes, what treatment is likely? And we have read a lot about Avastin - is this licenced for use in the UK?
Any advice would be gratefully received. Thank you.
