Mom's Kidney Cancer Update- August 2017

Mom had a series of doctors appointments recently that included scans. We went to her appointment on Friday to talk with her oncology doctor and nurse. All the areas in her body remained the same except her liver.

 

Mom was feeling pretty sick on her most recent visit

It's been 4 years since my mother was originally diagnosed with kidney cancer, and 2.5 years since it came back in an advanced stage. Since June 2016, she'd been on a great new drug combo Lenvima + Afinitor, but with the growth on the liver, the doctor has decided that it's no longer a good option for my mother to continue to take it.

The doctor gave her the option to return to Torisel + Avastin, which she originally took in September 2015 and which gave her few side effects compared to the other drugs. As I explained back in the November 2015 post, it's an IV drug combo of temsirolimus (Torisel) and bevacizumab (Avastin). Temsirolimus is an mTOR inhibitor. It blocks the effects of a protein called mTOR, often over active in cancer cells that makes the cells divide and grow. Temsirolimus is also an anti-angiogenesis drug. Bevacizumab is a different kind of anti-angiogenesis treatment that targets a cancer cell protein called vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF, which helps cancers grow blood vessels).

Drug combo choices