Hi All,
Need help in this confusion. My brother, aged 29, just got diagnosed for GBM 4 grade months ago, with unmethylated MGMT and positive EFGR. Currently his on 30x radiotherapy along with 120mg temodal a day, Mon - Fri. Just two days ago he started the cocktail drugs regime with drugs as follow:
Celebrex 400mg/day
Verapamil HCL 240mg/day (Isoptin)
Cimetide (Xephamet) 400mg/day (the pharmacist Tagamet claimed not produced anymore?)
Metformin 500mg/day (Glucophage)
all taken an hour after taking temodal. He take a blood test during that first day of consuming all those drugs, and the next day when the blood test result out it shows that his gamma gt is 84 which is above normal as normally it should be below 62. He shows symptom of what the oncologist said to be kind of 'liver damage', which are fatigue, nauseating feeling, and a few feeling to vomit. We are confused as to what cause such a high Gamma GT is it possibly the drugs or temodal? Have any of you experienced this? If yes how to recover it? Should we stop some of the cocktail drugs or lessen the dosage? Thank you very much for the time and reply!
Hi I often wonder this too
ReplyDeleteMy dad vision is really really bad but tumor has been stable for about 5months however he is getting worse his vision and movement.
I often wonder if the cocktail could be causing this
Hi! from what I know the side effects are differ in each person. Have u tried consulting with the neurooncologist if the location of tumor might affect vision or movement?
DeleteHi, my husband was diagnosed with GBM stage IV on feb/2014. He did all the three traditional treatments that modern medicine has. Unfortunatelly, they did not last for too long. 9 months after his last treatment of chemo, the tumor came back. At that point we search for other therapies and we found Optune, a head device. He decided to do “the Optune device” as a non toxic therapy. He used it for 2 months, but unfortunatelly did not work for him either. His tumor was growing to fast and to aggressive, but at that point my husband did not want to do chemo or radiation again. I decided to find a naturopathic doctor, who helped us with supplements, and also recommend us a treatment call IPT (Insuline Potentiation Therapy). We had to travel to another state because it was not a place in our state who could offer us that therapy. He started the IPT in the middle of October 2015, and it last for one month. The treatment was suppose to last two months but my husband did not completed. No side effects at all. The treatment did not work for too long. I believe because he did not do everything that it was recommended to do (Healthy diet, supplements, detoxification, exercise, etc, etc...) On March/16 the tumor showed again progression. I've trying to get him into clinical trials (Immunotherapies), which are not toxic therapies. Unfortunately, he did not qualify for any. Some of them, he did not have all the inclusions that they were requiring and others, they have already admitted all the patients for the trials. He is taking steroids (Decadron 8mg xday). Last week, he started Avastin. Im praying for him that that drug does not harm to much his body. At the same time, I just keep praying that God will strength his faith. I continue taking care of his food, Organic mostly and juicing every day. My advice for all of you is, Believe that there is a cure, no matter how crazy it sounds. If there is a treatment, specialty, if is natural that is going to cure you or help you to live longer, do it! because as much as I want to do for my husband, if he does not believe, nothing is going to work. Don't stop searching! there are a lot of good treatments, non toxic that most of the oncologist don't tell you or don't know. So keep looking, asking and having faith in God. He is in control of everything. Good luck and God bless all of you. I recommend you to watch “The truth about cancer and Surviving Terminal Cancer, Ben Williams” Amazing real stories that encourage you to believe that there is a cure if you have faith.
ReplyDeleteHi! Yes, I also believe there are always Hope in everything. Just remember to never stop fight for it. Always keep the faith in God and His plan :))
Deletefamily medicine physician here with AAIII. All of the nsaids can cause liver problems, even Celebrex. I thought of trying the CUSP9* protocol but could not tolerate the metformin. Have turned to low carb diet instead. Reduce the Celebrex dose and maybe consider holding it for now and follow the GGT weekly to see if Celebrex can be restarted.Stop all other nsaids like Motrin/Aleve as well and even tylenol. No alcohol during this follow-up. If on a statin, contact prescribing MD to stop that as well.
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for your advice! We'll try to adjust the celebrex and NSAIDS drug dosage. Btw what is the CUSP9* protocol? what measurement do you use to see if you could tolerate metformin? thank you for sharing with us :)
DeleteHere is some general information on the CUSP9 protocol for GBM: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CUSP9
DeleteDetailed information may be found in the library.
Liver enzymes (AST, ALT, GGT)are measured to detect injury to the liver. Note, however, GGT is an *inducible* enzyme. Alcohol and a number of drugs will cause the liver to produce more GGT, in the absence of any actual liver injury.
ReplyDeleteIf GGT is elevated without AST or ALT elevation, then it's possible that nothing needs to be changed. Following the enzyme levels over time would be prudent.
Dexamethasone can induce GGT in rat's livers, for example:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8094224
This induction does not mean injury or damage.