yervoy only worked for a few weeks?

Forums General Melanoma Community yervoy only worked for a few weeks?

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    jmmm
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      My husband started Yervoy in May with his last dose July 5.  He had two golf ball sized tumors in May–one in his GI tract, and one near his heart.  At his 14 week scan (mid July), it showed the GI tumor gone and the tumor near his heart "dead" and half the size.  There was an area of concern in some lymphnodes in his abdomen, so we waited and rescanned last week.  The CT scan (previous scans had been PET scans, not sure if that matters or not), showed the mass in his abdomen still there, but unchanged in size.  It's in a lymphnode.  And an additi

      My husband started Yervoy in May with his last dose July 5.  He had two golf ball sized tumors in May–one in his GI tract, and one near his heart.  At his 14 week scan (mid July), it showed the GI tumor gone and the tumor near his heart "dead" and half the size.  There was an area of concern in some lymphnodes in his abdomen, so we waited and rescanned last week.  The CT scan (previous scans had been PET scans, not sure if that matters or not), showed the mass in his abdomen still there, but unchanged in size.  It's in a lymphnode.  And an additional mass in a lylmphnode in his neck.  The 2 bigger tumors from May are completely gone!  We're so confused.  The Dr. thinks it's disease progression–he had a biopsy done on the neck one yesterday, but from what we've read on Yervoy, it can be a delalyed reaction.  Is it possibly that the Yervoy worked on the two tumors then stopped working and now this is new disease and the yervoy is no longer working?  Or could we wait 2 months and maybe the yervoy would work on these two tumors?  We're so confused and devastated, because we thought he was a yervoy resonder and ecstatic that it worked.  Any thoughts???  We'll get pathology report next week sometime, but we're just anxious in the meantime.  We hadn't read anything about the yervoy working so well for just a few weeks.

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        FormerCaregiver
        Participant

          Sorry to read that about the confusing way that melanoma has been reacting to Yervoy. Unfortunately, it is not unusual for melanoma to overcome the effects of most treatments. At the moment there is nothing that we have that will have guaranteed effectiveness and the duration of response can be quite short in some cases.

          I agree with the view that it is disease progression, and wonder if your husband has consulted a surgical oncologist. I feel that surgery should be considered if at all possible because this will reduce the tumour burden, and may lead to an improved prognosis.

          Let us know if you have any questions or need more info.

          Hope this helps.

          Frank from Australia

          FormerCaregiver
          Participant

            Sorry to read that about the confusing way that melanoma has been reacting to Yervoy. Unfortunately, it is not unusual for melanoma to overcome the effects of most treatments. At the moment there is nothing that we have that will have guaranteed effectiveness and the duration of response can be quite short in some cases.

            I agree with the view that it is disease progression, and wonder if your husband has consulted a surgical oncologist. I feel that surgery should be considered if at all possible because this will reduce the tumour burden, and may lead to an improved prognosis.

            Let us know if you have any questions or need more info.

            Hope this helps.

            Frank from Australia

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