Cycles/Rounds Chemo
Can someone explain what a cycle/round is in the Chemo world. I'm schedule for once a week for 12 week of Paclitaxel is this classed as one round or do they work in 4 weeks??
Forum Discussion
- It is usually weekly for 12 weeks however in chemo terms they still consider cycles. One cycle is every 3 weeks....so every 4th dose of taxol is actually the next cycle. It can be given at higher doses every 21 days instead..but they found the weekly version had less side effects for the same benefit.
I just counted backwards from 12...and photographed every last one. It's a drag. - Hi @RubyRumble, I am an Oncology nurse so I can help you here. Cycles and Rounds are interchangable. Most chemotherapy regimes are broken down in cycles and days. Paclitaxol for instance is given every week but the first 3 weeks are generally included in cycle 1. for e.g.:
Cycle 1 you will recieve your infusion on Day1, Day 8 and Day 15, the cycle ends on Day 21 and it all starts again. there is normally 4 cycles of paclitaxel. hope this helps, Brenda - Ah the good old Taxol/Herceptin cocktail - jokes aside, Herceptin seems really valuable and I had no side effects that I know of from that. I haven't had the injections but anything that doesn't require hunting for a compliant vein would be a good thing!
- Thanks ladies @Joannie @Afraser I also have Herceptin thrown in there every 3 weeks, thou will change to injections when chemo has finished. Xx
Paclitaxel (commonly known as Taxol) is usually weekly. 12 doeses ( over 3 months) is a fairly standard teratment so probably that's what you will have. Always worth checking through, I failed entirely first go t realise I had Herceptin for a year not just three months!!
A round or cycle usually refers to one treatment, but some are weekly (usually because it is too hard on the body to do a larger dose infrequently) and others are three weekly, but could be two. The aim is to balance inconvenience, travel and initial reactions with minimising longer term negative reactions as far as is possible for an effective, or therapeutic dose.
Best wishes.
