Wednesday....October 20th...2010

A most disappointing day today...Linda received a phone call this morning from the clinical trials coordinator telling her she has been removed from the clinical trial she was scheduled for.....a most disappointing bit of news, after having spent the last month and a half waiting for this trial and having wasted the previous 2 and a half months on Tarceva that didn't work.

Why?

Because Linda had radiation in her initial treatment.....and the folks behind the trial said that radiation damages the heart and therefore the risk of further damage would be increased and also would affect the results of the trial...and..and...

After a morning of some miscommunication, Linda's Oncologist called and apologized for the miscommunication and let her know she would start tomorrow on a chemo...specifically Docetaxel.

Linda still had the CT Scan today but all other tests were canceled.....the CT Scan will let the Oncologist know what is causing the increased coughing.

After the Scan, Linda went to the OHSU Oncology Center to get her needle insertion removed....we gave the nurse coordinator a note for the Oncologist to read so we could have a discussion tomorrow prior to the infusion of the Docetaxel.....specifically we want to know what the general prognosis looks like now.....where are we?......what are the options?......are there other trials?....etc...etc....can we get back what Linda lost over the past 4 months...etc...etc...

So now we move forward....what Linda doesn't need is a rehash of what happened today or the unfairness or an alternative treatment or whatever...she could just use some gentle words of support with a positive intention....having to explain everything or engage in a less than positive discussion is wearing on her physical condition, specifically the cough and also on her mental well being....I think most will get the picture....


Docetaxel (trade name Taxotere) is a clinically well established anti-mitotic chemotherapy medication (that is, it interferes with cell division). It is used mainly for the treatment of breast, ovarian, and non-small cell lung cancer. Docetaxel has an FDA approved claim for treatment of patients who have locally advanced, or metastatic breast or non small-cell lung cancer who have undergone anthracycline-based chemotherapy and failed to stop cancer progression or relapsed.

Administered as a one-hour infusion every three weeks generally over a ten cycle course.....

Docetaxel is of the chemotherapy drug class; taxane, and is a semi-synthetic analogue of paclitaxel (Taxol), an extract from the rare Pacific yew tree Taxus brevifolia.