[Karen]

Cytoxan-Velcade-dex (CyBorD, VCD)?

by Karen on Thu Nov 21, 2013 1:50 pm

Hi all,

Thanks for your replies to my questions below about transplant recovery times. I'll file them all away for reference!

As it turns out, my doctor doesn't think we need to progress quite so quickly. I'm going to start on a regimen of Cytoxan/Velcade/dexamethasone [CyBorD, VCD], and go back on the Zometa, to try to get my Kappa light chain numbers back down into the normal range. I was just looking over my blood work and it is so frustrating - every other number is well within the normal range, it's just this darn Kappa! Right now it's at 12.57. The Lambda # is 0,91 and the ratio is 13.81. I think when I was diagnosed the Kappa number was about 16; after my initial treat­ment with Revlimid/Velcade/dex, plus radiation and Zometa, it went down to almost nothing.

Have any of you been on this combination -- that is, Cytoxan+Velcade+Dex [CyBorD, VCD]?

My doctor feels that since I responded well to Velcade the first time, but did not have as much of it as I had of Revlimid, I will most likely respond very well again to it, especially when combined with the other drugs. I was nervous when I heard "Cytoxan" as that's what I had before the stem cell harvest, and I lost almost all my hair, but the doctor says this will be a much lower dose, and that shouldn't happen.

I'm not looking forward to being back on the Decadron, especially at a high dose (40 mg). But...whatever it takes. This will be a once-weekly dosage schedule where I will go to the infusion center and get the Velcade shot and the Cytoxan and dex pills. At least this time the Velcade shot is available and I won't need to go through the IV injection.

I'm also going to get a PET scan on Monday to see if there are "hot spots" of myeloma activity. The good news is that I did have a full body bone survey last month and those results were OK.

We will definitely keep transplant on the table as an option and I would guess that I'll be having one in the not too far distant future, but at least I am apparently going to be able to get through the winter and to my son's graduation (and our 25th wedding anniversary) without worrying about it.

Karen

[Joy]

Re: Cytoxan-Velcade-dex (CyBorD, VCD)?

by Joy on Fri Nov 22, 2013 9:32 am

Hi Karen,
I had one cycle of cytoxan, dex, and Velcade because my Revlimid hadn't arrived yet. I then did five cycles of RVD before my harvest and transplant. It's only one cycle so hopefully others will answer that have had more experience. However, I can say that I had no hair loss problem from that Cytoxan but did lose all my hair from the Cytoxan at my harvest. My oncology nurse said the same thing about dosage: that the Cytoxan given during regular chemo won't cause hair loss. I don't know if that changes as a cumulative effect, but it sounds like you won't have a problem with that. I hate not having hair and I hate when people say that I have "bigger" things to worry about. I want the luxury of worrying about stupid superficial things. Hair and lack thereof is a big deal for most women.
Anyway, it's great news that you can wait on the transplant! Have fun at your son's graduation! BTW, I'm post transplant 6 weeks now and feeling pretty good. I don't have enough energy or enough of an immune system to return to work yet, but the process has been better than I expected.