Do low platelets cause nausea?
 

question answered

Rose, I don't live far from you in Sebring, FL. I have been on a long "watch and wait" list with MDS since 2006.
Nausea, yes I get nausious just from the MDS in general. It's gotten worse in the last year or so. Some mornings it's all I can do to keep my coffee down. Sometimes, around meal time, it just gags me to want to eat.
I don't think it's just his platelets which are mainly a blood clotting agent of the blood. It is probably from his MDS raeb-2 and the fact that all three lines have probably dropped from the Vidaza. I'm not on Vidaza, but from what I've read the WBC, RBC and Platelets drop initially before they come back up. Others please chime in.

Thanks so much for responding to my question. I hope that you will be feeling better soon. I am also sure that you have enjoyed the warm weather the last couple of days. It sure has been a really rough winter in so many ways. Thank you again, Rose

Nausea?
 

Hi Rose,

You're post is interesting, in that, my husband, Ron, has not been nauseated since his 2nd cycle of begining Vidaza.. until recently... he was nauseated last cycle (#11) and he just began his cycle #12 today... so, we're hoping he doesn't have a "repeat" of nausea this time.

Last week, Ron's platelets fell below 100, but, they had been holding between 120-200 pretty stable. Today they were within "Low Normal Range"...

What protocol is your husband on? 3, 5, or 7 day Vidaza treatments?

Cindy

Hi Cindy, My husband, David, has been doing 5 day treatments every 28 days. He was doing well until this treatment schedule when his platelets were too low to continue.
They have steadily trended downward but usually come back by the week of treatment. They have been as low as 28 then came back to only 40 this time. I am hopeful that they will be up this week.I know that this is one tricky disease. The moment you sort of relax something else happens. Wishing you better times. Rose

Low platelets
 

Hi Rose,
You have perhaps seen that one member, Kirby Stone, has been able to get the new drug Promacta for low platelets with good result. The drug is only approved for Immune thrombocytopenic Purpura - a bleeding disease, but MDS patients sometimes can get it from Glaxo Smith Kline.

Other drugs for MDS patients are Dacogen and different histone deacetylator inhibitors like Epival or Zolinza (not approved for MDS by FDA). Zolinza in combination with Vidaza has had the best response rate I have seen (83%) but that was only a small study.
Kind regards
Birgitta-A

Hopefully, your husband won't need this, but I heard about a new clinical trial using the drug eltrombopag for advanced MDS patients with low platelet count:

http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00903422

I would vote for it being drug related, too. My platelets hovered around 20 for a long time - and got pretty close to 0 on occasions, and I don't recall ever feeling nauseous.

Promacta (eltrombopag)
 

Hi Rose,
If you look at clin trials gov you will find that there are 2 trials for MDS patients where they can receive Promacta for low platelets. One is for patients with advanced MDS - in fact the patients should have more than 20% blast cells which means that they have AML.

The other one is for patients with Low to Int-2 Risk MDS
http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/N...ombopag&rank=2

Kirby posted this link to GlaxoSmithKline that has discovered Promacta: http://www.gskforyou.com/16_programs.htm
Kind regards
Birgitta-A

Birgitta, Again I thank you so much. Rose McMillin