Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer - Stage IV Metastatic Lung CA?

I went to Google Scholar and then typed in Tarceva. Well this drug is still very new. So most cited informatiion refers back to the trials.

Side Effects: Occular problems, diarrhea, Mild acneiform rash and nausea, are just a few problems. I do see in the results, you can take this medication alone or with radiation.

http://content.karger.com/ProdukteDB/produkte.asp?Aktion=ShowAbstract&ProduktNr=223857&Ausgabe=228630&ArtikelNr=66198&ContentOnly=false

Check this abstract out.

HER-targeted tyrosine-kinase inhibitors
J Baselga, LA Hammond - Oncology, 2000 - content.karger.com
... diarrhea was observed at 200 mg/day [16]. In general, very few patients withdrew
from these Tarceva trials as a result of side effects

Expand this post...

Early data show that they are generally well tolerated and have provided evidence of antitumor activity. HER-TK inhibitors are exciting agents that are likely to have a substantial impact on the way we treat patients with cancer.

Here is another worth citing:
After reading this it sounds like you are on the right trac. You have a doctor that is really on top of things. Wishing you the best Health

http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=17314781

Titre du document / Document title
EGFR inhibitors in lung cancer
Auteur(s) / Author(s)
BUTER Jan ; GIACCONE Giuseppe ;
Résumé / Abstract
Targeted therapies inhibiting the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) have been introduced in the treatment of patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Many inhibitors of the EGFR have been developed, targeting either the extracellular receptor domain with antibodies or the intracellular tyrosine kinase binding domain with small molecules. The tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) gefitinib (Iressa) was the first targeted drug to be registered for the treatment of NSCLC after failure of chemotherapy. Given concurrently together with platinum combination chemotherapy both TKIs gefitinib and erlotinib (Tarceva) failed to increase activity. Sequential targeted therapy after chemotherapy is currently being investigated furtehr. Studies with the monoclonal antibody cetuximab (Erbitux) combined with chemotherapy are ongoing. Side effects of the small molecules are mainly skin rash and diarrhea, whereas the antibodies do not give diarrhea. Selection of patients, based on molecular markers and patient characteristics, has become an important issue for the further development of these drugs, given there is activity in a relatively small group of patients with NSCLC. Newer drugs inhibiting more than one receptor pathway are being investigated in order to find activity in a broader group of patients.
Revue / Journal Title
Oncology ISSN 0890-9091
Source / Source
2005, vol. 19, no13, pp. 1707-1711 [5 page(s) (article)]
Langue / Language
Anglais

Editeur / Publisher
PRR, Melville, NY, ETATS-UNIS (1987) (Revue)

Localisation / Location
INIST-CNRS, Cote INIST : 26118, 35400013504114.0030

Nº notice refdoc (ud4) : 17314781