May 2, 2026
Happy spring. I hope you are enjoying the longer days and warmer weather. If any of you want to send some moisture this way, we’d appreciate it!
You may recall that my scans in March showed some of the active cancer areas getting more active (bad news 👎). The good news is that it’s still only in the bones 👍. Things become more challenging if it shows up in the lungs, liver, etc.
I was hoping to participate in a clinical trial but it was full with a long wait list. Waiting for treatment with Stage 4 cancer is not a good strategy.
I decided to try an unconventional approach (instead of doing IV chemo). It’s a bit risky because it’s not standard protocol. My oncologist was not very excited about it saying that in his experience he’s not seen great results. I told him that I’m not typical 🙂 and that I’d like to try it for 3 months. He agreed as long as we do close monitoring.
The conventional approach is that once a drug fails you do not go back and try it again later. This is why I keep saying that I have a limited number of treatment options.
However, there are often multiple drugs in the same class (or type) and while they largely work the same, the way they work differs. For example, there are three different CDK/6 inhibitors and they all work slightly differently.
I’m trying a different CDK4/6 inhibitor (Verzenio). You may recall my first line of treatment was Ibrance, also CDK4/6 inhibitor. Ibrance failed me so I moved on to other drugs.
The CDKs work by targeting estrogen (along with a second drug you take with them). Once drugs that target estrogen fail, you move on to other drugs like chemo or an Anti-body Drug Conjugates (ADC – like Enhertu that also just failed).
There is some rumbling in the MBC research world that it might be possible that the cancer “forgets” why it became resistant to a drug. If you are off of a particular type (or class) of drug for a while, going back to that type might work again.
There have not been clinical trials to test this. Especially for CDKs, the research is limited because these drugs are relatively new.
I had over a 2 year break from the CDK Ibrance. I’m banking on my cancer having forgotten how to resist a CDK and am taking Verzenio.
It’s an oral drug so no infusions (yay! 🙌). It has potentially terrible side effects (boo! 💩). Thankfully, I’m not having any of the bad side effects (grateful! 🥰).
I’m doing this treatment plan only because of my advocacy. I investigated literature to see what has been published about doing this (basically nothing). I read a lot of support group forums to understand what other MBC patients are doing. I looked into ways to decrease side effects.
I told my oncologist I was going to tritrate up to the full dose. This basically means starting with less meds initially and ramping up. Instead of 2 pills a day, I did one. Then I would go to 2 pills a day alternating with 1 pill a day, eventually getting up to 2 pills a day, everyday. Based on the experience of many other patients this gives your body time to adjust and lessons side effects.
My oncologist was not aware patients were doing this. He thanked me for telling him and told me to let him know how it goes. I’m hoping by sharing my experience he will suggest it to others.
Tomorrow I will have blood work and meet with my oncologist. I’ll get an infusion of Zometa – a bone strengthener. Then I have a pause in medical appointments until June (because May is filled with travel). I’ll have scans in early June and then we will have information about if this treatment is working or not.
In the meantime, I’m feeling good and doing all the things! I hope you are too 😉.
Onward!
Life As I Know It 