3 replies to this topic

[stephiericks]

Its been a while since I've posted about my husband.  He was diagnosed summer of 2011 and had a suboptimal response to Gleevec and was switched to Sprycel by his oncologist.  Had a HORRIBLE response and we decided it was time to go see Dr. Cortes.  Cortes put him back on Gleevec with goal of cytogenic remission at one year.  That hasn't happened and we just got his BCR/ABL report from MDA and it jumped from 1.2 in August to 34.45.  We're waiting to hear back from additional mutation reports they're running - assuming he will be switched to Ponatinib or Bosutinib.

Here's my question and I would love your help.  My husband has dipped for 30 years - disgusting, horrible habit and he HAS to quit.  Does anyone have any info about the negative effect of tobacco use on TKIs?

[Trey]

A direct relationship on reducing the effects of TKI drugs does not appear to exist from a small study done:

http://clincancerres...14/24/8308.full

But on the other hand, it is not helping him.

But his Gleevec response is not good and something must be done differently.  You have previously reported that he tried Sprycel but had bad side effects and gave up on it:

http://community.lls.org/thread/13924

Having bad side effects is unpleasant but in view of failing Gleevec he must use another drug.  And the Sprycel side effects you reported would probably have diminished after a while, so he likely gave up too early.  But at this point I would try Tasigna.  Feeling good is not the objective for these drugs.  Fighting the leukemia is what is important for him. 

[idahobeavers]

i am a smoker. my cml specialist never says anything to me about smoking in the years i have had cancer i have seen 6 differnt ones. all they said is if i need a bmt then i will have to quit

[td1961]

Stephie,

Been there, done that, got the t-shirt! First of all, he's got to WANT to quit! Otherwise, you're wasting your time and breath. I smoked for over 20 years, then started chewing as a replacement for smoking. That whole psycho transference thing! Finally, when I decided to quit (not because my wife was whining about it, which she did all the time by the way!), I went and got nicotine gum. It took almost a year but I finally did it. So, if I can do it, he can too! Mind over matter! However, the side effect might be that you have a gum chewing addict to deal with from now on. Good luck! BTW, nicotine has all sorts of nasty cancer causing ingredients to worry about, whether oxidized or not. Another reason to quit. TracyD