View Single Post
  #1  
Old Wed May 30, 2018, 04:37 PM
mdsmom mdsmom is offline
Member
 
Join Date: May 2018
Location: usa
Posts: 5
Question on Decitabine

A brief history about her- She was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006. She underwent 4 chemo of Adriyamycin, 4 Taxol and 12 Herceptine (Total treatment of 2 years)



My Mom, 76 years (she is in India) was diagnosed with MDS in December, 2017. Her blasts were 15%. Platelets were 11000. She was given single platelet donor transfusions and it used to be twice a week in the beginning. The doctor started the treatment of Decitabine once every 4 weeks and told her to take 4 cycles.
In March, her platelet count improved and she used to get transfusions once in 3 weeks (the lowest platelet count was 8000)
In April, the platelet count improved further. Now it's once in 5 weeks. Every week when she gets her blood tested the platelet hovers around 24-32k.

After 4 cycles of Decitabine, she got bone marrow check in April 1st week. The blasts were reduced to 2%. The doctor recommended to take 2 more cycles of Decitabine. The 6th cycle will end on Friday June 1st, 2018.

Now the doctor is saying to continue to take Decitabine every month until the patient responds. When asked what after the patient stops responding- he kept mum.

I want to ask the fellow MDS patient as to what is the treatment regiment?

I had heard that you can give Decitabine in 2-3 month intervals.

Is there any other parameter that you are going to measure to determine the effectiveness/responsiveness

We heard that Decitabine needs to be given until patient responds. Can anyone please define what response means.

Thanks for your inputs
Reply With Quote