[dxsParticipant]

Mainly for the benefit of newcomers but also for people who have had myeloma for a while, I think it would be useful if people creating a topic spelt out the particular treatment they are having followed by the abbreviation in brackets, e.g. Cyclophosphamide Dexamethasone Thalidomide (CDT). The abbreviation then can obviously be used the 2nd, 3rd….time. I feel we are reaching the point where the proliferation of different treatments really needs clarification. In my own case, after a not good start with CDT I was put onto Velcade with Dexamethasone but without Cyclophosphamide. Is this VD? (Not venereal disease for you clever clogs out there!)  Just trying to be helpful.

[PhilipandfionaParticipant]

No, that’s CVD.
i can understand how hard it is for newcomers to get their heads around this disease and the proliferations of initials doesn’t help. But I think a list of abbreviations somewhere may be easier than everyone spelling it out every time as I think that may get a bit tedious after a while.
Everyone here is so kind I’ve never worried about asking questions of what it all means.
I also wonder if some people choose not to know exactly what’s what and simply use the initials. I know my husband has to stop and think if asked what he’s taking.
Ps when I was a child we studied CDT at school – craft design and technology. I still think that when I see the treatment initials even though it’s in the wrong order.

• This reply was modified 10 years, 1 month ago by  Philipandfiona.
• This reply was modified 10 years, 1 month ago by  Philipandfiona.

[iangParticipant]

Actually, CTD is the usual abbreviation for Cyclophosphamide + Thalidomide + Dexamethasone, not CDT. (If you need convincing try Googling CTD myeloma, then try Googling CDT myeloma.)

It’s not obvious that it should be one or the other. I sometimes have to think twice when I use the abbreviation in speech. CTDa is the attenuated version that has a reduced dexamethasone dose, which can help you get it the right way round if you remember that the ‘a’ is associated with the ‘D’.

Vel/Dex and Vel-Dex are common abbreviations for Velade + Dexamethasone, but VD and Vd are also used. CVD, VCD and CyBorD are all used for Cyclophosphamide + Velcade (Bortezomib) + Dexamethasone.

I can remember thinking that the liberal peppering of abbreviations made some posts (and medical literature) quite difficult to follow when I started looking up about myeloma. It’s not helped by the variation in abbreviations for the same drug. Velcade, for example, can be V (as in CVD), Vel (as in Vel/Dex) and Bor (as in CyBorD) and possibly others. It would be nice to have the consistency of chemical symbols.

[petesilverParticipant]

I agree I must admit I get confused when reading some postings, there is such a range of drug combinations, better to spell it out correctly so we can all understand exactly what treatments are being used. Every time I start a new regime if its not different its administered a different way, but still life goes on.

[Author]

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