After my husband's surgery in April to remove the primary, a liver tumor and 40+ para-aortic lymph nodes, the plan was to radiate the lymph nodes that the surgeon could not get. But then the scans showed several new lung mets, so radiation was canceled. My husband's oncologist said it was time to pivot from attempting to cure the cancer to palliative care, and he gave three choices: (1) a clinical trial for an immune therapy drug combination, that had shown very little success on my husband's type of cancer; (2) a clinical study of using Vectibix monotherapy until it stopped working, and then try something different for awhile before switching back to Vectibix; or (3) Folfiri. My husband chose option 2, because his oncologist said it was worth a try before using up the Folfiri option. He has now been on Vectibix for 4 months, and his latest scans are stable, with some slight shrinkage. His oncologist said he can stay on this until it stops working, at least 2 more months, and then if something starts to grow he can either switch treatments or try to radiate the growth area while still taking Vectibix.
Has anyone managed to stay on Vectibix monotherapy for several months? We are really hoping that he can stay on it for awhile longer because it is so much more tolerable for him that Folfox was. The rash and peeling fingers suck, but he has good energy levels and very little nausea. At the same time, we worry that maybe he should be doing something more. And the scans every other month are so stressful. It's like we are just waiting for the treatment to stop working. And, it's hard to give up on the idea of a cure. But we have gotten second opinions from MSK and Northwestern, both of which concurred that there is no realistic way to try curing cancer that has such wide spread.