Scatmanjohn: just recently been diagnosed with stage 4 liver, starting immunotherapy treatment Monday

Just recently been diagnosed with stage 4 liver, starting immunotherapy treatment Monday, just wondering if any one else has had this kind of treatment and what i can expect, I've had chemotherapy before for bladder cancer which was removed but this treatment could possibly have some nasty side effects. 

  • Hello Scotman

    There can be serious sice effects from immunotherapy you will be closely monitored and have a 24hour phone number to call. My own experience is good and I just get an itchy rash abd fatigue both of which are manageable.The benefit is some tumours have shrunk to undetectable and disease progression significantly slowed. There are many different drugs used, if you make another post with the name of the immunotherapy used for liver cancer you may get a more specific reply. I have metastatic skin cancer to bones and lung and receive  cemiplimab and denosumab.

    Ed

  • Yeah, the immunotherapy I'm going to be on is enfortumab vedotin and pembrolizumab, got to be honest I'm not looking forward to it. 

  • Hello Scatman

    Quite a mixture - I was very apprehensive to starting immunotherapy but a member here suggested giving it a go as they'd had very few side effects (from pembrolizumab) and that if it really was unbearable then I could reqest to discontinue the treatment. Their advice proved to be sound. Although it is palliative care rather than a cure I've had extra quality time that I may not have had otherwise, I was very poorly when I started this over one year ago and now enjoying a fairly good life when Im not too tired to enjoy it. 

    Ed

  • Thank you for your reply, set my mind at ease a little bit, although i know different people react differently to treatment, hopefully i won't be too bad, also nice to hear that you are having a fairly good life one year on from starting your treatment it gives me a little hope that it's not all bad.