tarceva (erlotinib)

codesmith · Regular Joined: 05 Dec 2008 Posts: 36

has anyone ever been on Tarceva (Erlotinib) before or currently?

this has turned out to be my last treatment option together with Gemcitabine.

I am worried about some of the side effects, especially the breathing difficulty possibility i found on wiki.

and how bad do the rashes get if anyone knows?

Sherry · Regular Joined: 30 Dec 2008 Posts: 45 Location: Missouri

Everyone is different on how meds affect them. My mother-in-law was on Tarceva at one time and she actually didn't have any side affects. So you may or may not have them.

pbj11 · Site Admin Joined: 12 May 2007 Posts: 2404

Hi Code,

If you've done some of the heavy-hitting chemo, Tarceva should be a walk in the park. The rashes can get very nasty for some people, but there are drugs to help mitigate some of that. You actually WANT to see the rashes, because often that is an indicator that the drug is working. I see people post about the breathing thing, but never saw anyone acutally have an issue with it. Naturally most of the people I have contact with are lung cancer patients, so that may play a factor. My husband had horrible breathing problems, but his time on Tarceva was some of his best, with a break from regular chemo. It also didn't work, so that's what I know about that!

Gemzar is a good drug. Some people experience fevers while on it and I kept a supply of slim re-freezable ice packs at the ready to help when it happened to my husband. Big sweating episodes too following the fevers. Not everyone has that reaction and he took Gemzar in combination with Taxotere for a long time. He also did Gemzar on it's own, so we knew the fevers were from that.

I dearly hope this new combo works for you and gives you additional time. Have hope --- good things can still happen even later in the game.

Hugs,
PBJ
_________________
Husband diagnosed with NSCLC Stage IV. (Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer) Fought & lived 2 1/2 years with multiple lines of treatment.

Post describing our battle: http://cancerforums.net/viewtopic.php?t=7026&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0

codesmith · Regular Joined: 05 Dec 2008 Posts: 36

thanks for the quick reply. i do hope it works for me ... if i stop treatment it would be similar to pulling the life support plug. it would be so depressing knowing the cancer has free will all of a sudden.

thanks again.

oh and by the way i have had chemo. so far:

carboplatin + gemzar
AND
5FU + gemzar

both gave me fevers. must be the gemzar as you said. i fight fevers with antibiotics, steroids and even paracetamol.

i dont know how some people handle years worth of chemo, i only was on the above two chemo regimes for about 4 months. my oncologist said the pancreas tumor was still the same, so something worked, but there were more mets to my liver. for this reason she said we should stop gemzar - but i insisted we dont, i would rather be a little sick now and then, live longer on gemzar than be fine and die earlier.

and sorry to hear about your husband. its a hard situation to deal with.

John1427 · New User Joined: 13 Feb 2008 Posts: 9

After ten days he had to stop taking it to allow a rash to recede. Now he's started taking again (02/20/2009), and so far the rash has not re-appeared. However, he had a temp of 102 last night. This is his last attempt to slow the PC with mets.

tweetybird · Regular Joined: 29 Jan 2008 Posts: 18

hi codesmith

just wanted to say my mom was on tarceva, she was recently taken off of it due to other issues, but her time on it she never had any problems, with it. At the beginning she was on tarceva while receiving gemzar, they stopped the gemzar and then she was on tarceva alone, and still didnt have any problems.

I wish you luck with your treatments, and hope all goes well with you. You'll be in my prayers. Keep us posted

jasyn · New User Joined: 28 Mar 2009 Posts: 1

this reply may be a bit after the fact but ..

i'm currently on a gemcitabine(gemzar), cisplatin, and tarceva cocktail. gemcitabine/cisplatin every 2 weeks and tarceva once a day.

as someone said earlier, experiences can be vastly different. i had some acne in the very beginning but now things arent much worse than some itching and scratching on my back, arms, chest and legs. i do believe i experienced some mild fevers in the very beginning but nothing of the sort now.

this upcoming thursday will be my 5th round of chemo.

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