Chemo cocktail

Laurice has chosen to undergo the chemo regimen recommended by her oncologist Prof Michael Green. She will start on a cocktail which is fairly standard for the type of  cancer Laurice is fighting.

In determining what treatment to put Laurice on there are several factors to consider;

• The size of the Tumor, (The larger of Laurice's Tumors was 55mm)
• The grade of the Tumor, (grade 3 aggressive!)
• The status of the lymph nodes (Laurice's were thankfully clear)

Laurice is triple negative, that is her cancer is negative for oestrogen and progesterone hormone receptors , she also negative  to the Her/2 receptor. This means that the type of cancer drugs which rely on the receptors  as a way in to attack the cancer cells would not work for the type of cancer in Laurice's case.

If the tumors are gone and the cat scans and bone scans are clear why do chemo?

As good as the scans are they simply can not detect cancer at a cellular level and it only take one of these cells to hide undetected somewhere in the body to once again grow into a tumour. Chemo will attack these cells and hopefully kill them all and rid her body of cancer  once and for all.

So it's chemo for our girl!

  The particular cocktail of choice is known as TC, consists of two different drugs

• docetaxel (Taxotere®)
• cyclophosphamide.

Chemo is effectively poison, it works by attacking rapidly multiplying cancer cells, unfortunately it takes out other cells that grow rapidly also, namely, those that line the mouth / gastrointestinal tract and hair.

For a full list of  possible side effects refer to the below link which has a reasonably good description
of some of the side effects that many, but not all, patients experience. Everyone is different and we won't know how it will effect Laurice until it starts.

The program is  for 12 weeks which is "only" 4 doses , given  once every  3 weeks.

So is that it?

Not quite!! The jury is still out as to whether Radiation treatment is also needed at the end of chemo, so stay tuned!!!


TC Chemo combination