Gim citabine?

Hi if there is anyone who is having chemo i want to know if you have come across the above medicine. My friend is having the following drug
1 Epirubicin
2 Cyclophosfamide
3 PacliTaxol
Plus Gim Citabine as she is taking partin a trial called Neotango trial
My question is that is there anyone on here who has had this trial and can anyone confirm if severe pain in the leg is part of the side effect.
Also how does anyone cope with severe loss of taste through chemo. what can someone do to counter this effect.
One thing that amaze me is that at a time of so much advancement in technology women are having to suffer so much drastic side effect. when will there be an alternative.
Awaiting your reply
Thanks

sorry it should read Gemcitabin.My friend has B.C.

I think you mean Gemcitabine (trade name Gemzar). It's primary prescribed for first line therapy of pancreatic cancer.
In addition, Gemzar is now approved for Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSLC), metastatic breast cancer and, ovarian cancer. I know they are looking into the effectiveness of Gemzar on other cancers thru clinical trials.

Paclitaxol (Taxol) is mainly used for breast cancer.

What type of cancer does your friend have?

Believe me our technology is not that advanced. To truly cure any cancer (or just about any type of disease), we would have to develop a way to locate every cell with a problem and either fix or kill the cell. In terms of fixing cells DNA, we have no reliable method of manipulating the genome of a cell in vivo. We have no way of either. Our current approach is primarily based on cutting away or killing rapidly dividing cells regardless of whether it is healthy tissue or not. That approach is changing but, very slowly.

The side effects you mentioned are not uncommon. The loss of taste is probably due to the fact that the cells that line the tongue are rapidly dividing and would be very suspectible to chemotherapy.

Good luck to your friend with breast cancer.

To gizzler: Of course, surgery is first line therapy for any tumor if possible. Chemotherapy is adjuvant. However, pancreatic cancer is often found late and complete resection is impossible. As for declining chemotherapy, I can understand that.

I work in a chemo ward; the effects of some chemos are truly awful. Severe pain in the leg needs to be investigated quickly via a Dexa scan which can detect blood clots; and clots can be one of the hazards of going through a course of chemo. Loss of taste is common; it usually returns within about four to six weeks of completing treatment. For the best information, go to www.cancerbackup.org.

Gemcitabine itself is actually a lot less toxic than other chemotherapeutic agents, but i must confess to not knowing much about the others. With her being in a clinical trial, she will actually have better monitoring than just a normal chemotherapy regimen, so if she is experiencing pain, she should contact the oncology ward who will be able to advise her based on a thorough grounding of her past medical history. It would be wrong to comment on the message board.

Also, to one of the other posters, Gemcitabine is not necessarily a first line treatment for pancreatic cancer except in occassional situations. 95% of pancreatic patients will have been stented, int/ext drain placed, bypass surgery, whipples (and poor histology result) and a large swathe of those referred decline therapy. Don't believe everything google tells you on the search for the drug. It is also used commonly in lung cancer now.