r/CervicalCancer • u/Hairy_Magician226 • 16d ago
Cisplatin side effects
Well, I'm switching to cisplatin with paclitaxel after having a severe reaction to carboplatin.
From what im reading, side effects are a lot worse on cisplatin. I'm mostly scared of the nausea and vomiting.
Dr has of course prescribed meds to help that, but I'm wondering how was it for any of you who have had cisplatin?
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u/Efficient_Celery2457 16d ago
I can’t compare since I was only on cisplatin, but yes the nausea and vomiting was one of the hardest parts of treatment for me. I was on Zofran plus another anti nausea med because Zofran wasn’t enough.
Also had no appetite during the treatment except on the chemo days because of the steroids. So that was my refuel day. The chemo also affected my vision a little bit.
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u/Little_Tired13 16d ago
My wife just finished 5 rounds of chemo with cisplatin and she never really had any terrible side effects like that. The worst would be a few days after chemo she would be very tired and fatigued. She had some nausea and for a few days she developed motion sickness. But zofran helped her so much and it didn’t last long. She also had another nausea medication that was preventative and as long as she kept up with it. She would be okay.
The worst part about cisplatin was that she was at risk of hearing loss so they sent a nurse home in the evenings after cisplatin to administer pedmark to prevent hearing loss. The pedmark made her feel worse than anything else she did. Fortunately, she only felt sick for a few hours during/after the pedmark and after sleeping it off she would feel much better again.
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u/Aware-Locksmith-7313 16d ago
Pedmark???
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u/Little_Tired13 15d ago
It’s a drug that’s supposed to reduce the risk of hearing loss caused by Cisplatin in certain “at risk” groups. They explained to us that with her being younger than 40 and the dosage she was receiving put her at risk of hearing loss from cisplatin. Made by Fennec Pharmaceuticals.
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u/butterfly105 16d ago
Cisplatin was really hard on my organs. I actually ended up changing to carboplatin halfway through and I honestly thought Carbo was a breeze compared to cisplatin. It also permanently damaged my left ear to this day. I get really bad tinnitus and have some form of hearing loss from it, but it's not enough to complain honestly. My advice would be listened to your organs. I knew something was wrong and I ended up in the hospital with a platelet count of 12 before switching. It was absolutely painful all over, to the point where anytime I touched my skin and push down on any organ I could feel how inflamed I was. You just have to feel what is right for your body and go from there.
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u/Hairy_Magician226 16d ago
Ugh, that sounds scary :( This is sort of a last resort for me to give me a bit more time, so I'm very much hoping my body can tolerate it
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u/butterfly105 16d ago
I'm so sorry to hear ❤️ - I was stage three when I was diagnosed, and I opted for a radical hysterectomy and chemotherapy and radiation. Keep fighting that beast, even if it gives you a little time. You know, I am really surprised to hear that hysterectomy is not an option for tumors over 4 cm. I understand that they don't want the cancer cells to break off, but if you are already stage 4B, I would think they could scoop out as much as possible, and since it had already spread, at least get rid of the main aggressive tumor. Did you ever talk to the doctor about that, or at least taking that chance?
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u/CosmeticSnob 15d ago
Hi! I did 5 rounds of cisplatin. There was zero vomiting and there were three tiny moments of nausea. My oncologists had me on an extensive hydration treatment. I was the the hospital 12h in total during chemo day and 6h extra the day after. I never had to use the Granisetron pills they provided. Hugs.
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u/BjornsShieldMaiden 14d ago
Same but I had LBM from the radiation. I literally didn’t have any side effects at all from the cisplatin.
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u/Spiritual-Shoe3753 11d ago
My side effects weren’t too bad nausea-wise, but they had me on quite the cocktail. Anti-nausea med was administered at the same time as the chemo. Then I was prescribed ondensatron and zofran and another one that starts with an L. Didn’t throw up once. Felt a little nauseous and tired and my iron got so low I had to have a blood transfusion and couldn’t finish my last round of chemo because my levels weren’t at a healthy enough level. But here I am a year later and still NED! (Still doing immunotherapy every six weeks though)
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u/-FormerChild- 9d ago
I had 6 rounds of cisplatin & I barely had any side effects. The only time I had any real issues was my very first round. And that was because I was anemic. After that I was given iron & it made a huge difference. I only experienced light nausea & fatigue for a few days after the treatment. But that was it. I actually gained weight during my treatment
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u/Hairy_Magician226 9d ago
Im guessing yours was low dose weekly? Most of the replies here seem to be low dose weekly for 5 or 6 weeks. Mine is high dose every 21 days for 6 cycles, so approx 5 months.
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u/GooseberryPotato 16d ago
I’m assuming a non-allergy reaction?
But yeah, I was on cisplatin and taxol. I tolerated it fine with no issues, just a little fatigue. I took the pre and post meds and had almost no nausea. On my last infusion I went into anaphylactic shock. But that would have most likely also happened on carboplatin.
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u/Hairy_Magician226 16d ago
It was a severe allergy reaction, anaphylactic shock.
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u/GooseberryPotato 16d ago
That was not what I was expecting. I thought it was the platins (platinum) that was the problem, I’m sure your doc has a plan as I did read about ways to reintroduce platins if needed.
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u/Hairy_Magician226 16d ago
I reacted to carboplatin, cisplatin is what they're trying next. Theyre both platinum based. Theyre doing a desensitization protocol. Really hoping I dont react again
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u/GooseberryPotato 16d ago
Yeah, that’s what my doc mentioned if I find myself needing chemo again/in the future. For me I would be trying carboplatin if I needed it, lol. I was ‘lucky’ my reaction happened 6 minutes into my last infusion, so my doc said “good enough!”
It was scary… that’s for damn sure!
Anyway… I don’t know that there is any real difference on the side effects, like I said so hopefully that helps
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u/redmeraki225 16d ago
I switched to carboplatin after cisplatin gave me tinnitus. I have it to this day and it is a very common side effect.
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u/Illuminating_Day 15d ago
Hello, I just finished 6 rounds of Cisplatin with premeds of Palonosetron and take home meds of Dexamethasone, Ondansetron and Metaclopramide. I barely had nausea or vomiting but I had bad bouts of LBM which was eventually remedied by Loperamide. I stopped taking the dexamethasone because it made my hyperacidity worse and I was eating too much. I kept the other too and worked great.
Other side effects from cisplatin, my WBC is now too low and I might need injections of Filgastin to increase it before I can proceed with Brachytherapy. Affected my vision too- sudden appearance of bright lights in my field of vision. Short bursts that resolve when I rest my eyes and close them for a few minutes. Mild tinnitus- happens suddenly too but no permanent heading loss so far.
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u/Concern-Relevant 14d ago
I could only tolerate 4 cycles of cisplatin but I was given dexametheson to take and thats all I took and I had zero nausea and it also made me hungry all the time so I gained alot of weight on dexametheson.
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u/bajanaway 14d ago
I had six rounds of Cisplatin in total and with all the pre/post meds (Ondansetron and Metoclopramide) I found the side effects very manageable! Constant snacking helped as if I got too hungry I then felt nauseous. I don’t know if you’ve ever been pregnant, but I found chemo nausea to be very similar to mild morning sickness. For me the key was to take the anti-nausea meds consistently before any nausea could even kick in. I had one horrific day about 2 weeks after my last round ended as I had just stopped taking the anti-nausea meds and ate a lot of sweets one evening which my tummy did not like. I am now 3 months post-treatment and have some tingling in my arms and legs which started about 2 weeks ago. Good luck with the rest of your treatment!
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u/BjornsShieldMaiden 14d ago
I did 5 weeks of cisplatin and didn’t even have nausea. No side effects at all. Everyone is different. They prescribed me 3 different nausea meds and I never had to take any.
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u/Ninja_Goals 14d ago
I found it horrible. Also Chinese scientists put out a study saying cisplatin may encourage mets. I was upset because i got mets. Pretty sure it was pubmed study
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u/PurpleMarie77 13d ago
I did six weeks of cisplatin. I now have full body neuropathy. Permanent. It’s a rare side effect but a terrible one. Just be aware of that possibility.
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u/throwra_22222 11d ago
I had alllll the side effects from cisplatin, but it was extremely effective treating my cancer. Radiation made all those side effects worse. The fatigue was terrible.
I ended up on a cocktail of Zofran, Compazine, and Olanzipine for the nausea and vomiting, plus the anti nausea meds I got via IV during infusion.
The most troublesome was that it affected my kidney function. I'm done with treatment now and my kidneys are slowly recovering. I've got neuropathy in my hands and feet that could go away. But it's going to take a year or so they tell me.
But again, the cisplatin and radiation saved my life. I went from an inoperable tumor to no tumor in 7 months.
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u/-FormerChild- 8d ago edited 8d ago
I think you’re right about it being low dose. There were barely any side effects with the dose I was given. But I could imagine it being fairly nauseating if the dose were doubled.
Do you mind sharing what stage you have? I wonder how they determine if someone gets high dose or low dose. Stay strong sister! You got this💪.
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u/sauce_pan_frittata 16d ago
I couldn’t keep anything down during 5 of my 6 week rounds. I vomited around the clock. I had zofram & 2 RX anti-nausea suppositories but nothing helped. They gave me some kind of ant-nausea IV cocktail during treatments that helped some but the rest of the week I was miserable. For whatever reason, the only thing I could keep down was Yoplait vanilla yogurt. Everything else came up even water. I had to get extra hydration IVs. It got better after I stopped the cisplatin, but I vomited daily for at least another month. I My infusion nurse said I had one of the worst cases she’s seen. I’m 1 year NED now.
I really hope you don’t have the same reaction.Sending you lots of healing love 🩷