Mom and I went to Duke the week of October 23 for her to start the clinical trial of CPT-11 and Avastin. The doctor felt this was most aggressive option and would be the best shot at reducing the tumor. The actual treatments were supposed to be on Thursday and Friday, with MRI's, appointments, and bloodwork the first three days. It turned out from the bloodwork done on Monday that her liver enzymes were too high to begin treatment. We waited and did bloodwork again on Wednesday, but was not low enough to begin treatment, so we had to go home. It was very frustrating. They believe this was due to one of the seizure medications she was on, so they have stopped that one and increased the other one.
I brought Mom back to Knoxville and she had bloodwork done again the next Monday, and the liver enzymes were still too high to do the CPT-11/Avastin, but the doctor from Duke decided to start another chemo that is easier for the liver to metabolize (VP-16). It is a 21 day cycle of pills she can take by mouth at home (this was started on 11/7). Around the end of November she will have an MRI and then we will decide if they still have space left on the other trial (there were 5 spots left), or what to do from there.
I brought Mom back to Knoxville and she had bloodwork done again the next Monday, and the liver enzymes were still too high to do the CPT-11/Avastin, but the doctor from Duke decided to start another chemo that is easier for the liver to metabolize (VP-16). It is a 21 day cycle of pills she can take by mouth at home (this was started on 11/7). Around the end of November she will have an MRI and then we will decide if they still have space left on the other trial (there were 5 spots left), or what to do from there.
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