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Medical Forum / Diseases and Disorders / Arthritis / June 2004Chemotheropy for arthritis?
I have DJDD and RA. I started off with JRA and I'm 63 now and every joint in my body is messed up. I've had shoulder replacement, spinal fusions, another in lumbar scheduled for when I'm up to it and same with my right shoulder replacement. My neice tells me she is taking chemotheroapy (spelling sucks don't it) for RA. Why have I never even heard of this, must less being offerred this treatment? My Rheumie is Chief of Imunology at XX University med school. Should I be fussing at him or is there a totally logical reason I was never offerred this? I am going to keep my cool until I know more, but if there was treatment out there for me that could have reduced the pain and suffering all these years I am probably going to explode. Postal like, only worse. Please tell me my neice is confused on her terms, I haven't been able to reach her by phone to question her. Anyway, Butch Magee >Please tell me my neice is confused on her terms, I haven't been able to >reach her by phone to question her. She might be thinking of something like methotrexate, which is a chemotherapy drug used in smaller doses for inflammatory arthritis. - Mary MacT http://www.alamedacreek.net butch, there are several options for treating RA these days. tell us what meds are you on now and then we can better judge if you might possibly have other options. methotrexate has been around a long time, but some of the newer drugs like enbrel and remicade have only been available in recent years. many of us are being helped by them, but still have plenty of irreversible damage like you, from the days before the new drugs came on the market. diane What meds are you taking? Char "Remember, I'm pulling for ya'. We're all in this together." Red Green Butch, not only are there a number of chemotherapy (immunosuppressives) used to treat R.A., but the newer biologicals such as Remicade, Enbrel, Humira, and Rituxan are available if one can get them prescribed and has insurance. The biologicals are very expensive. The chemo drugs have some serious side effects so it all depends on whether one's condition justifies the harsher treatment of chemo. Best wishes... Bruce |
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