Hidden12 years ago

It's discovered during your first series of chemotherapy which will be platinum based. Essentially, if it doesn't effect the cancer, or if it seems to, but the cancer reoccurs within a certain time, you are deemed to be platinum resistant. It also seems that platinum resistancy can alter during treatment.

Isadora.

bosue12 years ago

Hi Newlife, I have just been told I am platinum resistant, my firt lost o chemo was carboplatin 6 sessions, ca125 started to drop then seemed to ease off, seemed to be clear for a couple of months, then back onto another 6 session of pacitaxel/mitoxantrone but after 3 sessions scan showed no difference ca125 still about 60 so am now having a couple of months break and will try again with another cocktail of chemo, mine is just trying to keep it at bay as long as possible I will not go into remission. LOve Sue

TinaWright12 years ago

I have no idea, I had never even heard of this until I came on this site.

Maybe its the type of cancer it is? My oncologist was positive about the treatment before it even started, and there was no mention of this platinum resistance.

I only had the CA 125 bloods tests done through out my treatment and all was good there.

My CA125 dropped from 1,800 to 50 after surgery and kept on dropping after that, it seems steady at around 8-9 at the moment and I am 21 months down the line from surgery,15 months since last chemo treatment. I had a scan at the end of my treatment and all was well so just keeping fingers crossed and praying the ------- don`t come back.

I was actually given the choice whether to have the taxol - I was told the side effects were greater than the carbo alone and was also warned it can only offer an extra 3% chance of suvival. Some ladies refuse it because this is the one that makes the hair fall out and some ladies don`t feel as though that 3% extra help is worth it. I had 5 sessions of it, dropped the last one because it caused neuropathy in my fingers and toes, That has improved now but the damage to my muscles and joints has been on going.

I expect the answer to your question would be how your CA 125 results go - other than that scanning or side effects MAYBE!!!

Personally I wouldn`t worry too much about this - there is a good chance it will help YOU with no problems at all, we all worry about IF`s, BUT`s and the MAYBE`s, it doesn`t help us at all. The oncologists and chemotherapists work as a close team we have to put our life in their hands and trust them.

Best of luck sweetheart from Tina xxxxx

Whippit12 years ago

Dear Newlife

I was told from the outset that chemotherapy might not work (platinum resistance) but also that the type of tumour I have generally responds well to chemotherapy but returns more quickly than other types of tumour. Mine are the serrous undifferentiated type of tumour.

Apparently our response to chemotherapy is dependend upon enzymes in the body but they can't do a test in advance to see which chemotherapy will be effective on us. I had carbo-platin only as there was an admin error and there were no places available for me to have taxol which takes all day to administer. For me carbo-platin worked very well - there were no signs at all of tumours in the back of the abdomen after six treatments and the hospital were hopeful that I'd have a nice long remission. So far I'm coming up to 9 months after my first line.

I was told by the oncologist that having carbo-platin alone enabled the hospital to give me a larger dose than I would have tolerated had I been given a mix of carbo-platin and taxol. I suffered very few side-effects. My daughters said I was a bit dopey for a day or so afterwards and after four treatments I began to feel more tired than usual for 3 or 4 days after the infusion. Another common side-effect of carbo-platin is that it can affect the haemoglobin count and one session had to be postponed for a week until the bloods had recovered. Having said that it was only 1 point below the threshold and the oncology nurse said they could have gone ahead with the treatment as I was having carbo-platin only. The oncologist on call who made the decision wasn't aware that I was having carbo-platin alone and was in very good shape when he made the judgement to postpone it for a week. He made the decision by reading my file notes rather than meeting me face-to-face.

I'm sorry this is a very long answer to your question on platinum resistance. If you're only just starting your treatment I wouldn't worry about it unless you're faced with it as you've already got enough to cope without worrying about what might happen in the future. As I understand it we all develop a resistance in time if we have enough of it.

Hope all is going well for you. Better weather ahead to cheer us all up! xx Annie

newlife12 years ago

Thanks all

this is very helpful.XXXXXXXXXX

TinaWright12 years ago

I`m sorry Newlife, I just realised its the carboplatin that has the platinum - silly me and there I was nattering on about the taxol, which wasn`t really very helpful, was it? I do apologise, anyone else still having chemo brain one year and 3 months later? Or maybe its just another blonde day.

I do remember being told that high grade tumours respond well to treatment, mine was a 3 if that helps any.

I have also noticed that many of us have different treatments so there also maybe other options for you too if you don`t do well on the carboplatin but like we say please don`t worry too much - you do have enough to be anxious about, a lot of us do well with the platinum and hopefully you will be one of us.

Tina xxx