Has Anyone Tried Tarceva?

Hello. Can someone please let me know what are their experiences w/ Tarceva for Non-small cell lung cancer? Has anyone you know benfited from it? I read some postings on people getting horrible rashes and bad side effects from it, and I am concern. Please let me know if someone you know benefited from it.
Thank you!

Hi Edie--
My husband has been using tarceva for 4 weeks now. Really no side effects but the occasional nausea. No rash yet thank god.

Take care,
Nancy C.

Hi Nancy. Thank you for your response. I really hope your husband will recover and get better soon. Please continue to let me know how your husband is doing and how he is responding to Tarceva. Best of wishes to you both.

Hello Edie--
This is Nancy and I wanted to give you an update - my husband is now experiencing extreme bone pain with tarceva. His dr. said the only real side effect he has heard about is the rash. The other day it took my husband an hour to be able to bend his joints to get up walk, he has tried to increase his pain meds - and its helped some -- but now on his 3rd month of tarceva he is really very sore in all his joints.
Thanks, Nancy C. Take care and god bless.

Nancy,
Thank you for your update. I am sorry to hear that your husband is having pain in his bone from Tarceva. Right now, we are trying the alternative medicine route. I want to share w/ you some of the stuff I researched and did a lot of reading about, and maybe you can read about it online and see if it will help your husband w/ the pain...first, Noni juice, which claimed it contains plenty of antioxidants and is anti-cancer as well as help w/ arthritis pain, etc. The other things we are trying is Essiac tea (from Flor-essence), Reishi mushroom pill, Co-enzyme Q10, and Bee Propolis.
Read about those supplements and discuss w/ your doctor, and maybe some can help w/ the side effects.
Take care, Nancy.

Edie,
Thanks for responding. I will research these different treatments. How long have you been using these items? Mike is still saying the bone pain from tarceva is great. So i am on the road to try to see what can help with his discomfort.
Take care, Nancy

edie-thanks for responding. i will research these different treatments. how long have you been using these items? mike is still saying the bone pain from tarceva is great. so i am on the road to try to see what can help with his discomfort.
take care, nancy

Hi, I was checking out some messages and came across yours. My mother has been on Tarceva for 3 months and the only side effect she has had has been the rash and after a few weeks it improved and has not been that much of a problem. After 2 months she did have a CT and it showed major improvement in the lung tumor and liver mets. She feels great and is breathing better then she has in a long time so is back to doing alot of things she had been unable to do before the Tarceva. We get another CT next month. I was not aware that a side effect of the Tarceva is bone or joint pain, has your husband had a bone scan to rule out mets to the bone? Bone mets are common with Lung Cancer and do cause alot of pain so If I was your husband I would have that checked out. Sometimes you have to push the doctors to get what you need. In Nov. my mom got quite ill and the doctor wanted to write it all off to the cancer progressing, well she had no energy and had a low grade fever so we persisted in pushing him for answers. I made him test her for a urinary tract infection thou she did not have obvious signs of one and we insisted in seeing the pulmonary doctor who determined that she had a pneuomonia. The final results were positive for a urinary tract infection,positive for a pneumonia and yes the cancer was progressing and that is when Iressa later switched to Tarceva was started and it only took days for her to show dramatic improvement. Don't be afraid to ask for what you want with the doctors as they are only human and make mistakes and can overlook obvious things. Good luck. Jan Marie

Janmarie --
Thanks for your response. You're right -everything has to be reseached -- and it is so hard to keep up with everything and decide what is right and what's not. Good luck and God bless,

nancy c.

I read your message regarding the rash with Tarceva. My father has been on Tarceva for 4 weeks and has developed a terrible rash. He has had it for about one to two weeks. Did your mother use anything on the rash? How long did it take to go away? It is wonderful that your mother is getting back to enjoying her life. God Bless.