Asians, women, non-smokers, and those with adenocarcinoma histology. This drug still has been found to benefit males, smokers, and those with squamous cell histology, but to a lesser extent.
Edema (fluid accumulation in any body part, resulting in swelling) has been reported as an adverse event in 37% of pancreatic cancer patients taking Tarceva, although this side effect has not been reported in lung cancer cases.
However, the type of edema associated with Tarceva use is either generalized or involves a swelling of both legs. Swelling in only one leg may not be due to this drug. Unilateral leg swelling may be due to a local infection (cellulitis) in that area.
Thanks for your response. To clarify: his treatment was adjunctive. At the time they saw no sign of cancer outside the lung. Now, however, after 4 rounds of chemotherapy the disease seems to have spread during treatment with taxotere and cisplatin: it's now in the liver, bones and adrenal glands. His original tumor was EGFR positive that is why Tarceva came up as a viable second step.
Hi There...
I have had a upper right lobectomy on Sept 14 2001.Stage 1A BAC lung cancer...no chemo or no radiation..clear margins and no lymph node involvement.. ..it's been a little over five years now. cancer free. PRAISE GOD...and thou I realize that 5 yrs is maybe the magic number for most lung cancer survivor's...is it also meant for BAC Lung Cancer...I have heard not so....
Thank you for any information you can give me....
In general, this would represent the recommended treatment options for lung cancer. There are no clear guides as what drug is best after 3 lines of therapy, hence the reluctance to recommend any treatment.
I am also guessing that the adrenal involvement cannot be removed with surgery, hence, this is not given as an option. You are right, that there are some people who even have brain involvement and undergo surgery, but these cases are really the exceptions more than the rule.
m doing research as quickly as I can to help she and her husband make an informed decision about what to do...if anything. The local drs are recommending 4 weeks of full brain radiation followed by tarceva. Prior to the finding the mets, they were planning 6 weeks of radiation to the right lung in combination with etoposide and cisplatin.
I'd appreciate any feedback. My thanks in advance to all responses....
My father who is now 83 yres old is diagnosed with non small cell cancer with a large 3 inch mass in his upper right side. They state it is somewhere between a stage 2 and 3 due to the size. He is schedules to start radiation treatment in a week. However, they did state he is fit enough to have sugery but there is not guarantee he would not have complications from this. We are struggling to determine what is the better path to take. Will the surgery give him a better chance vs the radiation.
Hi. Which particular "chemosensitivity test" are you referring to? There is no single laboratory procedure which can test for the sensitivity to chemotherapy of all types of tumors. In breast cancer, there's the Estrogen Receptor (ER) and Progesterone Receptor (PR) assays to determine sensitivity to hormonal treatment. There's also the HER-2 (human epidermal growth factor receptor 2) assay for determining sensitivity to Trastuzumab.
It has already spread to the spine, both lungs and the lymph system. Doctors triede Tarceva for 3 weeks but her body had a very bad reaction. For the spine they did radiotherapy. But since she was diagnose 3 months ago she has lost aalmost her voice. she is using oxygen for the major part of the day but doctors don't wan't to talk about time. no more medes will be given and she was reffer to hospice....
She has done very well with chemo and radiation until recently. She was started on Tarceva about 3 weeks ago. Recently, she has been experiencing a lot of confusion. I cannot find anywhere that this is a side effect of Tarceva (it is the only drug she is on at this time). Is it possible that she has a brain metastases? If not, what are the likely causes.
Hi,
Your concerns are valid. Lung cancer is afterall, the biggest cause of cancer mortality. For this post, I can only work with the stage information, your doctor likely has better estimates.
Much of the answer here depends on how much the disease is affecting her daily living. If she stays in bed most of her waking hours, then treatment may only make an impact on symptom improvement. If she is able to maintain a fairly active lifestyle – then treatment may help extend survival .
In 2005, he had Tarceva. In 2008 they discovered metastasis to the liver (3 lesions) and he underwent chemo again (I think Avastin) and he finished the treatment in March. The doctor said the tumors in both the lungs and liver were smaller.
For the past 3 weeks he´s been vomiting, but sporadically. There is no pattern. It doesn´t matter if he eats lightly or heavily. Some days he vomits once, some days nothing.
He went to see a Gastroenterologist. They did a sonogram...
He started Tarceva this January but it seems it did not work as the cancer spread to brain…. 9 mets were identified in the initial MRI 2 weeks ago but the subsequent MRI right before yesterday’s gamma knife procedure (which removed 7 mets) evidenced numerous other tiny/small tumors spread all over the brain….He has been in relatively good condition (eating well, no weight loss) until these new mets emerged (which affected his walking and reading ability)….
-\ Anyway, its nice to know i have people out there who really care. I wish there was one of these sites for cancer patients. There probably is but im rarely on the computer. If any of you all are interested, my sister put up a website for me called Gina's Angels. It talks about how im doing and shows pictures and stuff. Id love for you to check it out and maybe "like" the page on fb. My love to all of you!
I found a big long lump in between my breasts. It's been there for about a month but I'm too scared to go to my doctor about it because I'm afraid that she's going to say that I have breast cancer. I'm too young to have breast cancer. I'm only 18. It's getting to the point where it kind of hurts when I go to stand up and bend down. What do you think it is or could be? What should I do? I'm really scared.
t have the answers for you, but, I decided to get mastectomy because I was in the process of getting a breast reduction. My other breast will be a reduction. For the question, ask your doctor because I was told in my situation I may not have to have chemo or radiation because they don't know yet. I hope your mom is doing ok.
Most breast cancers are not hereditary. However, there are two breast cancer gene mutations, BRCA1 and BRCA2, that can be inherited and increase your chances of getting breast and/or ovarian cancer. Notice that this only increases your chances, and does not guarantee that you will get breast cancer.
The person to be tested is your mother. If your mother does not have the mutation, you do not have the mutation.
This type of breast cancer accounts for no more than 2% of all breast cancer diagnoses and occurs most frequently in women who are in their 50s. Tubular breast carcinoma tends to be small, highly estrogen dependent and HER2/neu negative. Women with this type of breast cancer are less likely to metastasize and have an excellent survival rate. Decisions about treatment would take into account several factors such as size of the tumor, hormone receptor status, lymph node status etc.
I had breast cancer in my right breast 7 yrs. ago, had a lumpectomy, & had chemo. & radiation therapy for that. I couldn't follow up with Temoxaphen because of negative receptors. Cancer was found in my left breast now, so I had a bilateral mastectomy and no cancer cells were found other than in the new cancer site when pathology was done on the removed tissue and nodes. this cancer had positive estrogen receptors. The diagnosis is good and was rated as a "0".
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