Tarceva Warning

A small bit of advice for those, like me, who have had excellent results with Tarceva:

Tarvceva does not cover the possibility of brain metastasis.

Therefore you are strongly reccommanded to carry out regular MRI or CT scan of your brain

Hi Paolo,

 Yes I have heard this as well. My father is doing well on Tarceva right now and we asked to have an MRI done in March with his regular checkup. Do you know if there are any warning signs if/when the cancer metastasizes to the brain? How often do you think the MRI should be performed? I'd appreciate your feedback, thanks!

I had a big  brain met over a year after I started Tarceva.  As I was reading the Bible each mornimng, I noticed my reading was getting bad because it looked like small drops of mercury were on the word I was reading.  An MRI showed a big 5cm met under the back of my brain.  It was removed with some sight impairment just in the nick of time, and was followed by radiation.  I had a brain met that got me dianosed on the front part of my brain three years ago.  Hang in there and fight the big C.  Life can be good while living with Cancer.

Your tip about Tarceva not working on the brain was sure on target in my case.  It has held  the tumors in the rest of my body since July 05.

Ed

On 1/31/2008 Paolo wrote:

A small bit of advice for those, like me, who have had excellent results with Tarceva:

Tarvceva does not cover the possibility of brain metastasis.

Therefore you are strongly reccommanded to carry out regular MRI or CT scan of your brain

i hear ya thanks for the info but usually i get pet scans, and neck cats and mri's the works. thanks again