[facetious]

What treatment after complete remission?

by facetious on Sat Feb 18, 2012 7:23 pm

I was wondering what others in remission are having in the way of treatment.
I left everything in the hands of God and my doctors as regards treatment - my only concern was the end result and I told them to do what was necessary - you don't have to understand how a car works, to be able to drive it!

However, now that I am in complete remission, after an autologous transplant, my doctors have not prescribed anything as regards the multiple myeloma, although, I am taking medication for peripheral neuropathy, probably due to both thalidomide and the chemo.

I see several post here and on other forums that people are continuing with some of the medication they had before they achieved remission.

What are everyone's thoughts on this? To take or not to take?

[Nancy Shamanna]

Re: What treatment after complete remission?

by Nancy Shamanna on Sat Feb 18, 2012 8:56 pm

Hi Facetious! If you go to the Forums search area, and type in 'Maintenance Chemo', you can see dozens of posts about this issue. It's all quite individual and interesting to see what other patients decided to do. There seems to be quite a lot of variations on this theme. I took Maintenance chemo for a year, and have been now off the meds for almost a year. That has worked well so far!

[Chip]

Re: What treatment after complete remission?

by Chip on Mon Feb 20, 2012 1:46 pm

I was CR when I had my stem cell transplant.
After recovering from the SCT I was placed on maintenance of 10mg Revlimid on a cycle of 14 days on and 7 days off. The dosage will increase to 25mg in a couple of months.

[NStewart]

Re: What treatment after complete remission?

by NStewart on Mon Feb 20, 2012 3:30 pm

I haven't been taking anything since my transplant 2 years ago. My m-spike reappeared about a year ago, but has remained less than 1.0 without paraparesis.

[Snip]

Re: What treatment after complete remission?

by Snip on Mon Feb 20, 2012 11:03 pm

I had a VGR after my ASCT in Sept, and there are no plans for me to have any treatment going forward.

[Canuck Bob]

Re: What treatment after complete remission?

by Canuck Bob on Thu Mar 01, 2012 12:25 pm

I am on two meds to deal with the transplant, Spectra and Valtrex to gaurd against pneumonia and shingles due to immune suppression. My spike has stabilized at .17-.14 (1.7-1.4 Canadian rating) range since the ASCT, Sept. 2011. My Doctor has me on Revlimid a version of Thalidimde. So for cancer I am on Revlimid only. I suspect you are on thalidimide for the same reason if your still taking it.

I am very wary of Revilimid and had an extended discussion with my Doctor yesterday. I have decided to stay on it as a form of post transplant chemo if you wish.