Bear with me please...
Interesting old thread I found it in my search for "Hypophosphatemia" here this morning.
Actually, hypophosphatemia is not uncommon in the treatment of certain cancers.
DOI: 10.1200/JCO.2019.37.15_suppl.3002 Journal of Clinical Oncology 37, no. 15_suppl (May 20, 2019) 3002-3002.
Dabrafenib and trametinib in patients with tumors with BRAF V600E/K mutations: Journal of Clinical Oncology
Quote:
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The most frequent grade 3 AEs were fatigue, neutropenia, hyponatremia, hypophosphatemia, and urinary tract infection;
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In my never ending quest for answers to my sudden onset peripheral neuropathy, I came across information that I was not aware of a year ago, basically because I was never informed. Such is life in the public health system.
Yesterday in the back of a cupboard I came across an old tube of effervescent phosphate tabs that I'd forgotten all about and I started thinking... why I was prescribed this at the time and then I also recalled being given a phosphate drip in the hospital when I suffered side effects from my cancer treatment. Why did that happen and why was none of this explained to me at the time. I got on PubMed and started researching low phosphate and Targeted Therapy for met melanoma. Apparently it's actually quite common and very, very dangerous.
So, the rapid PN onset coincided with my being treated for just over a week with Dabrafenib and Trametinib for Metastatic Melanoma and ending up in hospital on a phosphate drip amongst other things.
Dabrafenib and Trametinib are medications described as "Targeted Therapy".
Half (approx.) of melanomas are BRAF positive so Targeted Therapy is often used as first line treatment in a BRAF positive patient. A BRAF mutation is a change in a BRAF gene. The mutation alters protein and that in turn affects the rate of cell growth.
I now wonder if it was actually hypophosphatemia that caused my neuropathy or if that's even possible. I had been led to believe it was the Dabrafenib and Trametinib that caused it.
Next step is to get Freedom Of Information access to my old file (I changed Doctors after all this happened to me) and find out exactly what was going on and being put into me in that week of my life that nearly ended me.