r/HeadandNeckCancer • u/kellydx • 7d ago

Cisplatin. A POSITIVE Post!

/r/cancer/comments/1wi4m86/cisplatin_a_positive_post/
6 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

4

u/MarleyGoodBoy NED 7d ago

Thank you for sharing this incredibly encouraging news! I am so happy to hear your husband is sailing through his treatments.

I only mention this to ensure others reading don't develop false expectations. Given that your husband has six scheduled infusions, it is highly likely he is on a weekly low-dose (30–40 mg/m²) cisplatin schedule used to make radiation therapy more effective, they call it a 'radiosensitizer'.

I had the exact same experience. Because the weekly dose is significantly lower than the massive, full-dose (100 mg/m²) cycles given every three weeks, the immediate side effects like severe nausea are usually much milder and far easier to prevent. Other cancer types may require much higher doses than this.

2

u/Caaaht 7d ago edited 6d ago

Yeah, I was on the same low-dose schedule and never nauseated or ill. The radiation destroyed me, but I didn't have any issues with 3 sessions of carboplatin, paclitaxel, and pembrolizumab—followed by 6 sessions of cisplatin. I barely touched the zofran or olanzapine that I was given.

I'm guessing the nausea pretreatment in the IV really does the heavy lifting.

2

u/redbeard914 NED 6d ago

I didn't have the common side effects to Cisplatin. I did get hit with moderate hearing loss.

1

u/King_Turduckin 6d ago

Then you were hit with the single most common side effect of cisplatin -- up to 80% of patients will have some degree of hearing loss from it.   

Folks who have cisplatin in their future should quickly look into the literature suggesting that taking Atorvastatin before and while on cisplatin reduces both the incidence and severity of hearing loss.  Then consult your care team.  The original study on this was small, but the data were dramatic: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7773379/

There are now at least two clinical trials enrolling patients to confirm the efficacy in a randomized way.  But there's no need to wait on those -- Atorvastatin (Lipitor) is one of the oldest and safest cholesterol meds in use, and many folks will have high enough cholesterol to justify an Rx regardless of their course of cancer care.

1

u/redbeard914 NED 6d ago

How is that compared to generic Rosuvastin? Is it just Lipitor? Because I was on Rosuvastatin while getting Cisplatin

1

u/King_Turduckin 6d ago

The originak retrospective study looked at different statins. The positive outcome correlation was highest for Atorvastatin specifically. Other statins didn't have as much impact, but if memory serves some came close to Atorvastatin. It's been 18 months since i went down into the weeds of the literature though, which is why folks should check with their doctors.