ARA-C/Cytarabine question?

I have aml and was treated with this in the high dose form. The ara c did not cause me to loose my hair, but it did cause horrible skin reactions. It was almost like I was burnt from the inside out. My whole body was red, and it burned but was itchy at the same time. It was horrible. THey treated the reaction iwth attarax and different creams. It did cause a lot of nausea for me, but really, skin reaction was the worst.

Cytarabine is a nucleoside analog that is primarily used in hematologic malignancies (leukemias). It is a key component of combination chemotherapies in the treatment of acute leukemias for both children and adults. It readily crosses the blood-brain barrier and this is important because it will get into the central nervous system and help treat leukemia cells there or prevent them from getting there. Main side effects outside of myelosuppression includes CNS toxicities (cerebellar-toxic) and conjunctivitis (use of steroid eyedrops will prevent this). Good luck on your son's treatments, many children will respond quite well to therapy, and hope he is one of them.

Hi, my mom was treated for AML and one of the drugs was ara-c.

Here's the best website (National Cancer Institute's official website) on leukemia -look up your child's type and read both "patient" & "health professional" sections. The info is more in depth in the latter.

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/types/leukemia

Here's info on Cytarabine from this website (I did a search):

http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/druginfo/cytara...

**additional leukemia resource -The Leukemia and Limphoma society:

http://www.leukemia-lymphoma.org/all_page?item_id=...

It would help to know the type and stage of disease that the drug is being used for, but anyway, I would suggest that you join a listserv or support group with the same cancer. Those people would recognize the drug and be able to tell you what their experience has been. Cytarabine is an older type of drug so there should be people who can give you better information.

Check with the ACOR listserv and find the type of cancer your son has, join the group, and you will find people who can hopefully give you better advice.

ACOR: Listserv mailing lists

http://www.acor.org/mailing.html

Best to you.

I have never dealt with it, but I do one ladies blog who she is blogging about her brain cancer, all the while dealing with her daughters autism and homeschooling. Amazing. www.especiallyheather.com She could maybe help you.