Hi Squaremeal,

Welcome to Cancer Chat. I understand you are looking for similar experiences from others on the forum - my reply here will give your post a little boost so that a few more people should see it, and hopefully you'll get some more replies.

You can also search the forum - using the bar at the top of the page - to find other potentially relevant discussions.

Do be sure to keep in touch with your doctor so that you can discuss things and get the information you need.

Our nurses are also available if you'd like to talk things through - you can reach them on freephone 0808 800 4040 (Monday-Friday, 9-5).

Wishing you all the best,

Ben
Cancer Chat Moderator

Hi Squaremeal

I am being treated for Grade 3 Breast Cancer (triple negative), so a different cancer to yourself, but have had immunotherapy in combination with chemo (and continuing immunotherapy for another 4 months).  I found chemo pretty brutal if I'm honest, but everyone is different.  I suffered complete hair loss (head, eyebrows and eyelashes), nausea and fatigue.  However, after 2 sessions of Docetaxel/Carboplatin and 4 of EC, the cancer had completely disappeared.  I had a lumpectomy to clear a margin and biopsy on 2 sentinal lymph nodes which thankfully came back clear.  I am starting radiotherapy next Monday for 9 sessions.  The immunotherapy on its own seems to be fine, with only a bit of fatigue for a few days after treatment and then I feel completely back to normal.  I was having chemo every 3 weeks with immunotherapy every 6 weeks.  As soon as chemo ended in March, my hair started to make a comeback (in all places!) and is now growing really well, albeit very different to before! 

I think I've been very fortunate at how well my cancer responded to chemo.  But as Moderator Ben says, keep talking to your doctors/oncologists and make sure you ask them all the questions you want to and even put suggestions to them.  I found I was able to do that and was never met with any kind of contempt and they always explained why they had chosen the treatment path they had for me and what the consequences would be if I went down the pathway I had asked about. 

Good luck with everything.

Carol

Hi Carol, thanks for your reply, I'm so happy to hear that your are recovering well and that Immunotherapy helped with your cancer, that is reassuring and in only 4 months!

Tomorrow is the big day when I meet up with the Oncologist to discuss my options, but Rhinectomy is definitely not on the cards with me. I fully understand that Chemo is quite an aggressive treatment but I've yet to find out if I actually need to be treated in this manner.

What I would like to know is how they assess you for Immunotherapy and what tests do they undertake?

Is their criteria that there has to be a greater than 50% chance of survival over 10 years before they will consider this treatment?

How long did it take after your biopsy to create the antibiotic serum (Dosetaxel/Carboplatin) to inject back into your body, was it weeks or months?

My time to find an alternative therapy is very limited with SCC in the nasal cavity as it is quite rare hence I'm reaching out for as much advice as possible.

Any information regarding the process would help me greatly

Kindest

Hi Squaremeal

I'm afraid I've been having immunotherapy for much longer than 4 months.  Apologies if I wasn't clear on that. I started chemo and immunotherapy in October 2023 and have continued immunotherapy since the end of chemo in March 2024.  So far it's been 9 months of immuno with a further 4 months to go.  I had a total of 6 months of chemo. 

I wasn't assessed for immunotherapy by way of tests.  It was just part of my treatment plan alongside chemotherapy as advised by my oncologist.  I have no idea if this was based on the fact that, luckily, my cancer was deemed to be fully treatable and not life threatening or limiting at that stage.  I had chemo before I had the biopsy on my lymph nodes, so the chemo again was prescribed based on my cancer treatment pathway.  The biopsy was only taken at time of surgery to check if it had spread. The Docetaxel/Carboplatin cocktail was administered via canula at the hospital every 3 weeks and wasn't an "antibiotic serum".  The prescribed dosage is a standard dosage and is very commonly used for different types of cancer. 

I hope this helps.

Carol