Arsenic?

[disneydad]

My 79 year old mom was diagnosed with RAEB-2 MDS in November of 2009. She has been through Vidaza, Dacogen and a revlimid study with no luck. She is tranfusion dependent (Every two weeks, like clockwork) and now her platelets are low and her WBC is elevated. We are waiting for her latest biopsy results. Her doc expects this one to show some disease progression. She is reccomending Arsenic with thalidomide and Ascorbic acid. There are a few studies with 25 to 30% remission rates. Has anyone had any experience with this treatment. I am mostly wondering if there are potential side affects and if they are worth it

[bebop]

I have never heard of giving arsenic. are you sure about that? not arenesp shots? very odd. I hope she is seeing an expert in MDS.

[DanL]

I think the regimen problem includes arsenic trioxide, as opposed to pure arsenic. Arsenic trioxide has been used as combination therapy in a number of studies.

[disneydad]

It is arsenic trioxide in combination with thelidomide and ascorbic acid. Doc says that she will add steroids if the WBC comes down. I was hoping someone had axperience with it. I am wondering about side effects.

[disneydad]

Saw her blood results last night. WBC's rose from 97,000 to 104 in the past week. Plts dropped from 30 to 29. Hgb was 7.8 a little over a week after getting two units PRBC.