GND: Gemzar®, Navelbine®, and Doxil®
Gemzar®, Navelbine®, and Doxil® (aka GND) therapy is used for
relapsed Hodgkin Lymphoma.
Gemzar®, Navelbine®, and Doxil® (aka GND) therapy is used for
relapsed Hodgkin Lymphoma.
Doxorubicin aka Adriamycin causes heart damage.
According to the University Medical Center at the University
of Groningen in the Netherlands researchers, the damage to
the heart from some cancer drugs is a well known fact but
this is the first long-term study to track the effects of cancer
drugs on the heart that might occur years later.
As a resut of this study, researchers recommend that all
patients treated with drugs known as anthracyclines have
life-long heart function monitoring. They emphasis, even
with the study findings, that doxorubicin is a highly effective
cancer treatment. In addition, today's cancer patients tend
to receive lower doses of these cancer drugs, and
cardioprotective drugs, such as dexrazoxane, were not
available to cancer patients in the past.
Aprepitant (brand name: Emend™) is a medication, that is used in the
treatment of chemotherapy induced nausea (emesis).
Nausea and vomiting caused by chemotherapy remains one of the most
distressing side effects for patients undergoing treatment for cancer.
Depending upon the chemotherapy agents or regimens given, up to 90%
of patients may suffer from some form of chemotherapy-induced nausea
and vomiting (CINV). Besides significantly reducing a patient’s quality of
life, symptoms from CINV can be severely debilitating and often result in
patients refusing further courses of chemotherapy, which minimizes
chances for an optimal outcome. Furthermore, CINV is burdensome on
the medical system, as nurses must spend follow-up time with phone
calls or patient visits in addressing this issue. The time spent in dealing
with CINV creates a financial impact, and steals time from the healthcare
staff who could otherwise attend to other patients or medical issues.
A multi-institutional clinical trial was recently conducted to evaluate the
combination of Aloxi™ and Emend® in the prevention of CINV following
several different chemotherapy regimens that were moderately or
highly emetogenic.
Complete responses (no emesis and no additional medication for nausea
and vomiting) was achieved in 90% of patients during the acute phase, and
80% of patients in the delayed phase. During both the acute phase (first
24 hours) and the delayed phase (24-120 hours), 97% of patients
experienced no emesis.
ZOFRAN is administered to those who feel sick
during two days following chemotherapy.
Vinblastine is a Vinca alkaloid work by inhibiting mitosis (cell division) in
metaphase. Alkaloids bind to tubulin, thus preventing the cell from making
the spindles it needs to be able to move its chromosomes around as it
divides. The alkaloids also seem to interfere with cells' ability to synthesize
DNA and RNA. Administered intravenously in their sulfate form the solution
is fatal if administered any other way, and can cause a lot of tissue irritation
if they leak out of the vein.
Vinblastine is typically administered at a dose of 6 milligrams per square
meter of body surface. Marketed as Velban by Eli Lilly and has a half-life
in the bloodstream of 24 hours. Vinblastine is mainly useful for treating
Hodgkin's disease, lymphocytic lymphoma, histiocytic lymphoma,
advanced testicular cancer, advanced breast cancer, Kaposi's sarcoma,
and Letterer-Siwe disease.
It also seems to fight cancer by interfering with glutamic acid metabolism
(specifically, the pathways leading from glutamic acid to the Krebs cycle
and to urea formation). People with bacterial infections should not be
given this drug, nor should pregnant women, since it caused severe birth
defects in animal studies. Side effects include hair loss, nausea, lowered
blood cell counts, headache, stomach pain, numbness, constipation and
mouth sores. Bone marrow damage is the typical dose-limiting factor.
An antineoplastic used a treatment for some types of cancer, commonly
used to treat melanoma, Hodgkin’s lymphoma and soft tissue sarcomas.
NIH page
Another NIH page
Cancer BACUP page
Bleomycin seems to act by interfering with the growth of
cancer cells, which are eventually destroyed. Since the
growth of normal body cells may also be affected by
bleomycin, other effects will also occur such as risk
of pulmonary fibrosis. Bleomycin is an antibiotic that
is obtained from cultures of the bacterium Streptomyces
verticillus.
Lance Armstrong:
Lance received one round of BEP (Bleomycin, Etoposide
and Platinol) chemotherapy, followed by three rounds of
VIP chemotherapy (Ifosfamide, Etoposide and Platinol.)
ABVD
doxorubicin aka Adriamycin,
bleomycin aka Blenoxane
vinblastine aka Velban and
dacarbazine aka DTIC
is a common chemotherapy for Hodgkin lymphoma.