Briefly, my wife was diagnosed with Stage 4 HGSOC just over four years ago. Primary taxol/platinum treatment and surgery went well; CA125 in single digits, and maintained for a year on Avastin. After less than another year, CA125 went up and three lymph nodes seen on PET, knocked back down by Gemcitabine + platinum over six months, but not for long. Six weeks ago with a CA125 of 350, she started Keytruda and got five shots of stereotactic gamma radiation directed at the lymph nodes. A couple of weeks later, CA125 was 250. After another three weeks, at her next Ketruda infusion yesterday CA125 was 32.
Of course, we're happy about this! Her CA125 never dropped by more than 50% in that time during previous chemo. But we're also apprehensive. Her medical team is never willing to make any predictions about the future. So, I'm left wondering how hopeful we should be after this sequence of results. Have you seen improvements like this which lasted for a time, or do recurrences tend to be quick?
I'm sure "your milage may vary" is the inevitable answer, but I'd like to know what the range of outcomes is likely to be.
Hi XB70
I am not a member of this forum as I don’t have ovarian cancer. But I thought you might be interested to know that I was treated with pembrolizumab (Keytruda) for metastatic triple negative breast cancer. That was in 2023. It gave me a complete remission which has held since. The drug doesn’t work for everyone and can bring a shed load of complications (as it also did for me) but it has been an absolute game changer for my cancer.
Macmillan Support Line - 0808 808 00 00, 7 days a week between 8am-8pm
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I have metastatic Triple Negative Breast Cancer, in remission
