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Thursday 23 August 2018

Avastin Considerations

Hello All and thank you in advance for your excellent advice.  It has been helpful over the years and hopefully, it will continue.  Over 3 years since my 1st resection of GBM and a couple of resections since with the latest this last June.

I have been taking Keytruda since before and after my last resection..  Now today's MRI is showing a large swelling in the brain but I am not having any symptoms.  No headaches or other effects.  My NO wants to administer Advastin to reduce the swelling and then determine new treatment options, either more TMZ, radiation, etc after the swelling is reduced.  there is one small potential tumor mass outside of the swelling area.

I would like thoughts on taking advastin to reduce swelling and potentially stopping more tumor growth. 

Thanks,

Marc

4 comments:

  1. Buenas tardes , soy nuevo en este blog no se si me acepten , pero necesito informacion del GM estadía 4, me gustaría saber Kien me.ouede ayudar kn uum cóctel para mi papá lleva 20 radiaciones y a diario toma TEMODAL 120 MG, kisiera empezar kn un cóctel k me recomienden , si estado de salud es bueno gracias

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  2. Hi Marc,

    My brother recently had a severe recurrence and his NO wanted him to start Avastin after his last round of chemo (Lomustine, previously on TMZ) showed it was no longer working.

    He is 34yo and has tolerated most things well. His Lomustine round kind of kicked his butt with side effects - he didn't respond very well to that one.

    He received his first infusion of Avastin at the beginning of the month and had his second one last week. He'll have a total of 4 before his next MRI (end-September).

    From what I've been reading about it, it seems like some people experience multiple tumor growth when they stop. I'm of the attitude that I hope we can drum up a different treatment to have in our back pocket so we don't have to continue on Avastin.

    That being said, his tumor is now very large so qualifying for trials is not likely. For this reason Avastin is a good option because it can produce significant shrinkage (the most happens on the first round from what I understand), that can help with getting into trials. This is how we hope to use it.

    James has tolerated this treatment well so far and we are dosing down on his steroids. Other than that he has not reported any side effects. He's also taking multiple supplements I can share with you what those are if you'd like. He also recently started physical therapy for other neuropathy & blood clot issues but I feel like physical movement helps overall.

    I'd be interested to hear others' experiences. I searched the blog here and read up a bit.

    Hope this helps you some!

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  3. Jenna, Thanks for your reply and look forward to hearing how your brother progresses.
    Marc We also are always looking for the next treatment option after the current. Our plan is bout the same, avastin to reduce the swelling to get a better view of actual tumor size. Mine is currently smallish but the swelling is quite large . I am meeting with different NO and surgeon on Monday to review other possibilities.

    Marc

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  4. For my sister's husband (who had GBM), Avastin was his absolute best option. He was MGMT methylated, but had poor results from the Temador, He had 2 surgical resections, one of them while awake due to delicate location of tumor, and was on bi-monthly Avastin treatments which he tolerated well for about 5 years. Everyone is different... wishing you the best!

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