I am scheduled to begin chemo this coming Monday and my first IMRT the day after that. The nurse at my cancer center tells me that their method of delivering Amifostine has essentially eliminated the problems with people getting instantly sick from it. She says they do two small subcutaneous injections - one in each arm. She said she hasn't had a patient get acute nausea/vomiting in a year. Does this sound accurate to anybody else? Everything I've read on this forum about Amifostine sounds like the majority of patients get n/v very quickly (30 minutes or so) after taking it. I know there are some who have been able to tolerate it but this nurse is saying they've tweaked their system enough that it doesn't cause these acute problems any more.

The nurse is very experienced in oncology and has worked at this center for years - but it seemed like what she described was too good to be true after reading all the horror stories about this drug. Just wondering if anybody has heard of such a thing and if it works so well, why wouldn't they be doing the same at other cancer centers?

They must have some "secret" even Medimmune doesn't know about! The Medimmune Ethyol booklet specifically directs patients to take an anti-emetic 90 minutes before the two injections, and also, to drink 20-32 oz. of water within the same time period. My husband diligently followed these guidelines. Hopkins also gives the amifostine in 2 sub-cu injections, one in each arm, 500 mg total in sterile saline, and although he did manage to take the drug all the way through, the had him skip chemo days (due to chance of nausea) and also, towards the end of treatment, he missed 2 Fridays -- also due to nausea. It may depend on what chemo you are getting, but he had 7 very low doses of a relatively low-toxicity drug (carboplatin) -- we observed that the folks who were getting cisplatin had even more problems with amifostine than he did.

Make sure you are taking a serious anti-nausea drug (Barry took Zofran) and drink that water!

Barry tells everyone taking the Ethyol was the hardest part of the treatment for him, BUT well worth it as he has good salivary function and also, he had less mucositis and was able to eat all the way through. Our RO nurse says she's observed that her patients who took Ethyol all the way generally have less mucositis -- although there is little clinical data to support this anecdotal report.

Gail

Hi,

Ditto to waht Gail has said.

I am unsure of the new procedures, but I followed the guidelines to the tee during my treatment and never had any problems. I am a year and 5 months out of treatment and my salivary glands are almost all the way back. Most of my contemporaries couldn't handle the shots and they are behind me in their salivary gland recovedry.

So, I think the shots helped, but it is hard to say. I would go with what the nurse says and make sure you have the anti-nausea meds needed, like Gail says.

Steve Daib

Thanks for the inputs. They have given me Emend for the chemo, and Zofran for the Amifostine. I believe they're also giving me another anti-n/v drug in addition to the Emend before and/or during chemo infusion. Sounds like I should be in good hands. Even a week ago I was completely stressed out over the upcoming treatment, but I feel basically at ease now - still apprehensive, but ready to get rolling. My first chemo is on Monday and first radiation on Tuesday. Thanks again...
Steve