Chemo treatments...which is more taxing?

Question

My wife has been diagnosed with breast cancer and just took her 5th treatment of Adriamycin. So far she is doing fine, just a little bit of fatigue. She is going to take 7 more of this chemo for a total of 12. I understand chemo is cumulitive and I am so happy thus far because her lump has remarkably gone down a lot.

So it is working! I have heard that Taxol is harder on the system. Is that true? What can I expect? My wife takes 48 cc's of Adriamycin for 12 weeks so I don't know if it is spread out over a longer period of time. The Taxol will also be 12 weeks followed by surgery and radiation.

Please if you have taken or know somebody that has taken Taxol...how did they do on it?

Answer 1

Hi Dave --

Glad you're still checking in ...and that is SUPER news about your wife's tumor responding to the Adriamycin.

My tumors did exactly the same thing on Adriamycin. By the third treatment (I went every 2 weeks for a total of 4 Tx's), I couldn't even feel the tumor any more ... neither could the oncologist.

I too had Taxol, 12 weeks (1 per week) after I completed AC (Adriamycin/Cytoxan). In many ways the Taxol was easier: there is no GI upset, my appetite came back in force, halfway through the Taxol treatments my hair started growing back. My legs started swelling from the first treatment on. They would swell during the day, then with elevation at night, the swelling would go down. This continued throughout treatment. For the last 3 weeks or so, the swelling did not go down at night.

I felt virtually no fatigue for the first 6 weeks on Taxol. Then, for the next 2-3 weeks, my legs began feeling tired. After that, my leg muscles became extremely sore and tired.

I did not experience any neuropathy (tingling/pain/numbness), but this is a very common Taxol side effect.

She should keep her nails short, and put moisturizer on them, because most women have nail problems: breaking, falling off, etc.

Other side effects I had were: low red blood cell count, and slightly elevated liver enzymes. Taxol is hard on the liver. She'll get bloodwork every week to keep tabs on these things. I did not need a blood transfusion for the anemia, and I would not take the Procrit shot to boost RBC production. Procrit can be very dangerous for cancer patients and I recommend you avoid this if she becomes anemic. It won't hurt for her to try to get as much dietary iron as she can throughout the day: spinach, whole grains, dried apricots and raisins, pumpkin seeds (they're good in salads), and other sources.

Most of us do much better on Taxol simply because we generally don't feel as bad.

I too had surgery after completing chemo and when they did the surgery, they couldn't find any cancer. Not a single cell. The chemo blew it away.

I hope your wife does as well.

Best to you both.

Answer 2

I HIGHLY suggest you get in touch with a homeopathic dr.   don't do chemo or radiation, that is horrrrrrrrible for her.

Answer 3

Basically your concern should be that your wife will do whatever it takes to get this done with . . it is good that she is tolerating adriamycin and if she is doing okay on that she will be able to handle taxol as well. My son was on high dose chemotherapy of Vincristine, Adriamycin, Cytoxan, and than Etoposide and Ifosmide which was rotated every 21 days for over nine months. He was an inpatient for all treatments. I know that there is a difference in ages . . but he handled it all like a trooper. Yeah, he had moments of nausea but the meds took care of that. He also did a lot of sleeping through the treatments.  It was a pretty tough regiment . . but he never complained once. And, when he wasn't on treatment he went out like any other teenager and lived as normally as possible.

Sorry I can't answer about taxol, I think everyone is different in their ability to handle chemotherapy . .either physically or mentally. Chemo is accumulitive though and it is apparent that you cannot stay on it indefinitely. Adriamycin (doxirubicin) has a life time limit that my son eventually reached and could no longer be on it. He also had significant response to the Adriamycin along with the other four chemos which allowed him to have two major surgeries . . after which he was no evidence of disease for nine months.

Best to you and your wife.

Answer 4

I had what they call dose dense chemo with Adriamycin and Cytoxin and then Taxol.  Most people have an easier time with Taxol than with Adriamycin, but it wasn't true for me.   I had the common side effects of nail loss and neuropathy of the hands and feet.  It was difficult, but like another responder, there was no evidence of cancer when I had my surgery.  "Just a cancer graveyard" is what my surgeon said, and I had started with a 2.5 cm tumour and positive nodes.  So in the end it was certainly worth it.

breastcancer.org is a great website with helpful people and a lot of information.

Answer 5

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