[Kate]

Myeloma treatment doses for women vs. men?

by Kate on Sun Feb 09, 2014 9:28 pm

I just watched 60 minutes, a report that stated that Ambien (zolpidem) is now ordered to be prescribed in a lower dosage for women than for men. It is also the only medication that so far requires this. It went into details about this and that and mentioned that most if not all studies on most medications were done on men only.

I am aware that some of the clinical trials for myeloma include women. So, do the trial results ever show a gender response?

This made me wonder about other medications (even though I am on nothing but Revlimid and dexamethasone). Have others watched that report, too?

Kate

[InQ]

Re: Myeloma treatment doses for women vs. men?

by InQ on Mon Feb 10, 2014 2:31 am

I am not sure about gender, but I heard that they take height and weight into account for dosages.

[NStewart]

Re: Myeloma treatment doses for women vs. men?

by NStewart on Mon Feb 10, 2014 9:41 pm

Revlimid doses are different from infused or injected doses of drugs. I don't know how the doctors decide on what dose to prescribe. But, I have noticed from the posts of others that the doctors tend to vary the dose level depending on how each person tolerates the drug.

I'm on 15 mg of Rev and am doing well on it. I don't have any problems with it so I haven't ever asked about a different dosing level. When the oncologist started me on Rev 100 days after my ASCT I had a really bad reaction to that level. So it was discontinued at that time.

I think that our oncologists are responsive to how we do with the various drugs and tend to vary doses and how often they are given based on what we tell them. So, it is important that if you ever begin to have any problems while on treatment that you let your oncologist know. This is particularly important if you, or anyone else, suspects that they are developing peripheral neuropathy.

Nancy in Phila

[torimooney]

Re: Myeloma treatment doses for women vs. men?

by torimooney on Tue Feb 11, 2014 11:46 pm

As I understand it, dosages for chemos (Velcade included) are based on your height and weight and not your gender .There is a formula for determining your body mass which can be found on the web. This is not the same as your BMI (body mass index). The reason we get weighed with each treatment is to be sure our body mass has remained the same from the last treatment in order to determine what dosage you will get that day. an example is I get 1mg/sq m of Velcade which equals total dosage of 1.8mg when considering body mass. A larger person could get the same dosage of 1mg/sq. m but their total dosage would be higher than 1.8 .