Anyone Used Tarceva As Their First Line Treatment?

Just wondering if anyone used Tarceva as their first line treatment?  Any results?  I heard good things about Tarceva. Just have to make a decision...Tarceva or Chemo??

Thanks

Tammy

I understand that under certain conditions, taking Tarceva (erlotinib) and Chemo at the same time gave more improvement, if the patient is a never-smoker. The study that says this is :

 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=PubMed&Cmd=S

I sort of got the impression that our doctors were familiar with only part of that study - the part that says that there's no point in taking Tarceva with chemo. However, our doctors didn't seem to remember that the study showed that "Never smokers treated with erlotinib (Tarceva) and chemotherapy seemed to experience an improvement in survival".

Maybe you can show this study to your doctor to discuss the possibility of taking Tarceva AND chemo. 

Ditto the above. 

I wouldn't feel comfortable using Tarceva only as first-line unless you clearly have the EFGR gene mutations.

 But the most simple way to determine this is to take Tarceva for a month and then look at CEA and get another CT scan. My wife had an excellent response with Tarceva only, 75% reduction in tumor mass. The CEA decreased from 38 to 3 1/2 over 4 months. We will now hit what is left with image guided radiation which will include a Met in L4 - she is StageIV and a never smoker.

On 6/2/2007 Pbj11 wrote:

Ditto the above. 

I wouldn't feel comfortable using Tarceva only as first-line unless you clearly have the EFGR gene mutations.

On 5/31/2007 Phil4:10 wrote:

Just wondering if anyone used Tarceva as their first line treatment?  Any results?  I heard good things about Tarceva. Just have to make a decision...Tarceva or Chemo??

 

Thanks

Tammy

My mother get TARCEVA for 16 month now as "first Line" with out Cheno and she much better. We are looking how to reduce the cost of It beacuse it is very expensive .

Good Luck

Kobi

I got  nslc stage4 2006 Dec. , I used tarceva as first line trement combine with radiation( 30+ times ), my CEA value reduce from 300 to 1.5 ~2 and PET , X-ray show good results.

However, I heard  tarceva only maintain its effect 8~10 months , so I would like to hear other's comment ?
  do you suggest me to do chemo or Avstin ?