Tarceva 150mg treatment for stage IV (metastatic non-small cell lung cancer) - what are the success rate?

Question

The patient start Tarceva 150 mg straightaway without having prior chemotherapy.

Answer 1

My cousin's wife, in her mid 40's with two little girls, was diagnosed early last year with MNSCLC and was aggressively treated immediately with Tarceva. They originally told her that she had weeks or months to live but she is still hanging in there. The side effects from the Tarceva were terrible -- she lost all of her hair and developed a terrible rash on her hands and face, but she survived and the tumors were found to have reduced following the treatment. She is now being treated with regular chemo (paclitaxel and carboplatin, I think, and maybe Gemzar) and may have some radiation to clear throat blockage. Her skin eventually cleared up and her hair grew back thick and beautiful.

Don't give up hope -- treatments keep getting better. My mom survived breast cancer 20 years ago and is now getting the new chemo (Abraxane) for tumors in her chest on liver at the age of 80 but she is doing very well and has few side effects. It is getting so that even some of the most terrible cancers can be treated as chronic conditions.

Best of luck.

Answer 2

You can read about Erlotinib (tarceva) at the National Cancer Institute site:

http://www.cancer.gov/clinicaltrials/results/lung-and-erlotinib0604

The studies and information about the drug can be found at the National Library of Medicine. You can find all published litereature on Erlotinib at Pubmed, type it into the search bar:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?cmd=Retrieve&db=pubmed&dopt=AbstractPlus&list_uids=16014882&query_hl=3

ASCO recently held their 43rd conference and released hundreds of new studies on cancer treatment. One of them does cover Erlotinib as a first line treatment for NSCL.

http://www.asco.org/portal/site/ASCO/menuitem.34d60f5624ba07fd506fe310ee37a01d/?vgnextoid=76f8201eb61a7010VgnVCM100000ed730ad1RCRD&vmview=abst_detail_view&confID=47&abstractID=33407

It would be best for you to ask this question to people who have NSCLC. There are several message boards and mailing lists where you can ask patients directly:

Lung Cancer Support Community
http://lchelp.org/

Lung Cancer Alliance
http://www.alcase.org/

ACOR: The Lung Cancer Online Support Group
http://listserv.acor.org/archives/lung-onc.html

Answer 3

I have known persons on it but not as you say straightaway. Check out www.nccn.org and follow the way they present for treatment protocols and see if they say anything

Answer 4

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