Posted on 09/07/2016 3:33:50 PM PDT by MarchonDC09122009
Chemotherapy warning as hundreds die from cancer-fighting drugs (cancer drugs may kill up to 50 % patients)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/08/30/chemotherapy-warning-as-hundreds-die-from-cancer-fighting-drugs/
Sarah Knapton, Science Editor 30 August 2016
Patients should be warned about the dangers of chemotherapy after research showed that cancer drugs are killing up to 50 per cent of patients in some hospitals.
For the first time researchers looked at the numbers of cancer patients who died within 30 days of starting chemotherapy, which indicates that the medication is the cause of death, rather than the cancer.
In Milton Keynes the death rate for lung cancer treatment was 50.9 per cent, although it was based on a very small number of patients.
Deaths of lung cancer patients from chemotherapy were also far higher than the national average in Blackpool, Coventry, Derby, South Tyneside and Surrey and Sussex, according to the research.
Similarly, around one in five people who underwent palliative care for breast cancer at Cambridge University Hospitals died from their treatment.
Public Health England (PHE), said it had contacted the hospitals concerned to ask them to review practices.
More than 1,300 breast and lung cancer patients died because of chemotherapy in 2014, the study shows Chemotherapy is toxic for the body because it does not discriminate between healthy and cancerous cells.
They advised doctors to be more careful in selecting patients for treatment where it could do more harm than good.
“I think it’s important to make patients aware that there are potentially life threatening downsides to chemotherapy. And doctors should be more careful about who they treat with chemotherapy.”
Professor David Cameron, Edinburgh Cancer Centre, Western General Hospital, added: “The concern is that some of the patients dying within 30 days of being given chemo probably shouldn’t have been given the chemo.
The research was published in The Lancet Oncology.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Yes it does, it starts as MDS and then to AML. I have AML. But? MDS turn MDS is really stubborn. I’ve lost several FB friends on my support site from this.
What do you do? Get yearly blood tests, bi yearly blood tests to check cbs’s. Luckily, there is a new drug Vidazza which is helping many with MDS. Blood cancer is in an amazing phase of new treatments. It was stagnant for a long time.
But, that is the scary part indeed.
Well, AML acute myeloid leukemia is not preventable. There is word that it is environmental from benzenes. But, even non smokers get it. It is not hereditary either. And it sneaks up on you in about a month and you just think you have the flu. Most don’t survive, because by the time they get to the dr too much organ has been done from lack of rdc and platelets.
I was lucky. My back was hurting. So instead of my dr giving me pain meds and sending me out the door. He sent me for an MRI - the MRI saw the bone marrow changes. Blood tests then biopsies lead to the diagnosis. Yes, I felt terrible. But, just tossed it up to everyday fatigue and every other thing. Thank God for my back Doctor.
The hospital is huge! I recommend the state teaching hospitals.
Don’t use the local ones. My opinion. Not everyone has that kind of time I suppose. Luckily only the large one treated mine. The local ones don’t touch it. They were amazing. For a ‘rare’ leukemia, there were 2 floors dedicated to just that. They knew their stuff. My confidence in them was and is immense.
So glad your wife is well. I too had a SCT. Mine was a donor from my sister
About your wife, did she develop MDS before leukemia? Did it turn to AML? Not sure if you remember. I have AML - 1 yr remission and have come across a few with your wife’s circumstances.
Scary times, life changing. So glad she’s well.
There sounds like there are missing pieces to that puzzle. An oncologist would not do chemo without verifying cancer. Not all cancer is in tumor form. Perhaps she did pass from chemo, but it sounds like some information is missing from her diagnosis.
Being able to get specialized treatment is essential.
Please tell that to the babies and young ones with with cancer. While your information is common sense. There are things that are out of our control.
Amen!
All this tells me is the next time I need Chemotherapy, it isn’t happening in Great Britain.
I’ve gone through Chemotherapy four times over the last ten years. I’m still here. If I hadn’t done what I did, I wouldn’t be here typing this.
Your arrogance is insulting and narrow minded.
Prevention may work for some, but not all.
I’m very glad you’ve survived your bout fighting cancer.
Stay healthy and well, FRiend.
RE: “All this tells me is the next time I need Chemotherapy, it isn’t happening in Great Britain.
I’ve gone through Chemotherapy four times over the last ten years. I’m still here. If I hadn’t done what I did, I wouldn’t be here typing this.”
So far, so good.
Thanks for the kind words.
With AML as I just got a year ago - it isn’t a last ditch effort. It is the only treatment. Immediate 24/7 inpatient chemo for a week straight. That’s the first dose. Fatal within a couple of weeks. No other treatment available.
Ditto. Two rounds and now on weekly chemo maintenance. Thank GOD for my amazing oncologist and his entire staff. I shouldn’t be here either as I was stage 4. AND I don’t take cancer advice from folks on the Internet! (First thing I tell the newly diagnosed as well!)
Another factor may be the waiting time to get treatments. Or even worse finding out when it is too late and chemo is the last option available.
Holly, my wife had breast cancer. Very aggressive. She had a surgeries to remove the tumor, and it was found in her lymph nodes. She went through six rounds of standard chemotherapy. Then she had another surgery to instal a port in her chest for easy access to her circulatory system. She was given drugs that overstimulated her bone marrow, best way I can describe it is the drugs caused the excess marrow to “ooze out of the bone” and into her bloodstream. For two weeks she received a daily injection of this drug. For 10 days, everyday, her port was hooked up to a centrifuge and they spun off a packet of the marrow. The marrow was then frozen in liquid nitrogen.
At this point, there was no top limit on the amount of chemo since her own marrow had been preserved. She was placed in isolation and hooked up to gallon jugs of Taxol (I saw the bill; each jug cost $60,000, I kid you not, in 1995 dollars). The Taxol killed the cancer but also killed her marrow. After two or three days, they flushed the taxol out of her system, and then brought in the tank of liquid nitrogen with her preserved packets of bone marrow. They thawed them out some warm water, and injected them back into her bloodstream through the port.
Then, while the marrow repopulated her bones, she was basically without an immune system for two weeks in the isolation unit. Even in as sterile room as they could provide, she got very sick.
And then she came home to our then six and two year old sons the day before Thanksgiving.
And she is still going strong today.
We have numerous survivors of cancer, including myself. There are cures. I work in early-phase drug development, and I see the progress the industry has made--it is nothing short of phenomenal.
Merck has a drug right now--perhaps you've heard of Keytruda or pembolizumab--they are pushing the FDA to recommend it as a first-line treatment for lung cancer. Keytruda is considered an immunotherapy treatment; i.e., it triggers your immune system to work to stop abnormal cell division, the hallmark of cancer.
Keytruda also has been shown to work well in head & neck cancers, as well as melanomas. Former President Carter was diagnosed with a cancer (I forget which one, perhaps liver or lung), one that spread to his brain. He's a 90 year-old man, and they usually forgo chemo at that age. After a month or two of treatment, the tumor in his brain was completely gone.
One final point--your declaration that after years of research and spending, "WE SHOULD HAVE A CURE!" is extremely ignorant of what cancer is. It's almost as arrogant as Obama and Biden declaring that a cancer "moon shot" -- spending from the federal government will finally push us over the top for a cure.
Cancer is not a single disease, and it's highly unlikely there will be a single cure for all. Some cancers are caused by a combination of viruses, some by genetic mutations, and some by the environment. Cancer is complex, and the genetic mutations that have occurred in humans over centuries make it as hard to pin down as the flu or common cold. Cancer evolves...it's a moving target. Simply throwing money at it does not solve the problem. Yet, we are making progress.
I’ve known a couple of folks who have been through it
Hope you are getting better
It’s a huge process. Very familiar with it. Personally familiar with it. Only with a donor, I’ve had to be on immune suppression drugs as the donor cells can attack my organs with GVHD. Graft vs host disease. I was a bubble girl for 6 months. I’m starting to venture out Still a bubble girl. No crowds and I stay away from kids. Had to retire. Have to get all new immunizations. The same ones one gets at childhood. The chemo for a donor transplant permantly destroys the immune system. So I am starting from scratch. I have no immunity to childhood illnesses till vaccinated. Waiting on that. So here 1,year later I avoid kids as no interest in shingles from chicken pox, measles, etc. have to get small pox, MMR, dpt, chickenpox, hepb, etc. it’s been a ride. But for 1 year post donor transplant, I’m doing ok. Never was a tv watcher. Do lots of that now!
The amazing thing is they keep/kept me protected with Tacrolimus ( transplant drugs) , anti viral and anti fungal meds I take daily keep me somewhat protected. Unfortunately, donor cells are attacking my eyes and the chemo damaged my heart. Small price to pay
They used fudarabine, busulfan and methotrexate for my donor stem cell transplant.
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