I'm currently sitting in my own comfortable bed, surrounded by junk food, letters of well wishes, birthday gifts, balloons, and Rachel sleeping peacefully. I have very low pain today and with each passing day of physical therapy my back is feeling stronger. I'm still walking with a cane, mostly for stability, but I think I'm looking a bit more rosey in the cheeks.
At this point I figured that I would be down 1 kidney and hooked up to IV chemotherapy every day. I thought I would have no hair on my head and feel like death. It feels odd, almost wrong, to feel so comfortable at this point and know that inside my body I still have a very life threatening disease that won't stop on it's own.
So that brings me to the chemotherapy drug that I am using, Sutent
Renal cell carcinoma
Sunitinib is approved for treatment of metastatic RCC. Other therapeutic options in this setting are sorafenib (Nexavar), temsirolimus (Torisel), interleukin-2 (Proleukin), everolimus (Affinitor), and bevacizumab (Avastin).
RCC is generally resistant to chemotherapy or radiation. Prior to RTKs, metastatic disease could only be treated with the cytokines interferon alpha (IFNα) or Interleukin 2 (IL-2). However, these agents demonstrated low rates of efficacy (5%-20%).
In a phase 3 study, median progression-free survival was significantly longer in the sunitinib group (11 months) than in the interferon alfa group (5 months), hazard ratio 0.42.[8][7] In the secondary endpoints, 28% of had significant tumor shrinkage with sunitinib compared to 5% with IFNα. Patients receiving sunitinib had a better quality of life than IFNα.
Based on these results, lead investigator Dr. Robert Motzer announced at ASCO 2006 that “Sunitinib is the new reference standard for the first-line treatment of mRCC.”
This drug works by interfering with the messaging of blood vessels to reproduce. By blocking this the tumors cannot form as easily and in some cases will shrink. This drug is simply a pill and so far the side effects have been manageable. My hands, feet, and tongue are all a bit sensitive. My facial hair is lighter. I get exhausted faster and sleep a bit more. The quality of life (as mentioned above vs other treatments) is significantly better. The doctors keep a close eye on my bloodwork and at last report I seem to be stabilizing well. I have just a few more days left of this 4 week cycle of Sutent then I get a 2 week break before my second cycle. Most research shows the second cycle of the drug is when the shrinkage of tumors can occur. But preliminary MRI scans show no significant growth of tumors since I started Sutent and Radiation!
