Anyone had luck with IRINOTECAN all by itself???

[musiclover]

My friend Mark is being put on Irinotecan until a study opens up to help stabalize his disease. He is stage IV. Has anyone use this before all by itself?? Has it done any good? I'm so distraught - he was scheduled to go on a trial and then they pulled it from underneath. No room they say. This really stinks.

[missjv]

hi,
wow sounds like mark is having a tough time are you sure there is nowhere else you can take him? find christine on this board and see where she went. she is in los angeles area and she just had liver resection not too long ago i think at ucla and she stated she was on med cal so try to get a hold of her she sounds like she had a very good doctor. has he had any chemo yet? he might respond well to chemo. i had 6 chemos and my liver mets are gone. i know there is a good chance they will come back but hey they are gone for now maybe mark will have the same luck and respond well to the drugs. if he has tumors he needs to be on avastin that will starve the tumors of their blood supply. well good luck i sure wish mark would start treatment soon before cancer gets worse.

missjv

[Hannah]

I know Mark's situation has been changing rapidly, so I'm not sure if this is even the most current info!

Irinotecan is sometimes given as a single agent (I think usually after FOLFOX), but if he hasn't taken other combinations, I would ask why he is getting irinotecan alone. Has he taken and failed on everything else? When I wrote to your other post, I was assuming that he was getting a combination. If he is definitely getting only irinotecan, he should know exactly why he is getting that alone rather than other combinations.

Do you know what exact trial he was trying to get into? It is pretty unusual for a trial to "fill up" and turn away patients. There are other trials that he could look into - he can try www.emergingmed.com to find a match for a trial. It takes some work to check out each trial and see what he might be eligible for, but it is worth it to spend the time.

Hannah