Erbitux

I had written previosly about my brother in law being treated with erbitux. I guess they do use it on its own for recurring(sp?) cancer in head and neck cancer. He didnt get the rash until the second treatment. He has one more to go and then a scan to see where he's at. I pray this is working since its the last chance. He has been fighting this nasophyrangeal cancer for 7 years.(It came back twice) By the way I read somewhere that a rash could mean that the chemo is working. If anyone has any other info or has gone through this or had someone they knew gone through the erbitux chemo treatment.on its own please let me know.

 Thanks and God Bless

Denise

erbitux is a wonderful drug it saved my life, the drug came out i think in 2005, just in time for me. i had 4 of those and 4. taxotere. this drug strips the protein off the cancer cell. and then the cemo goes thru the blood, the eurbitux makes the cemo work better. i also had 32 head and neck rad. treatments,along with that,it makes those treatments work beeter too. then my doc followed that up with avistan for 12 month,one shot a month and now i am on tarceva. quite a cocktail but i am cancer free and feel wonderful..all of these drugs do a number on the body, i had a naturaopath from the cancer hospital, she is worth her weigh in gold as the wonderful docs and nurses. dr said that the worse the rash the better the meds work. must be so. good luck  god bless

Thank you justkitty and thank you Meeesh. I thought that rash was a good sign. He just got it on the second treatment. Also I think I mentioned that he was having the Erbitux alone without any other chemo.(this is a recurrence of the original cancer) The cisplatin was not good on his kidneys and the carboplatin was not working.  This week is the last erbitux treatment and then a scan. I'll report back with the"good" news. Tthanks again I really appreciate your repsonses they make me feel a whole lot better. :)

 Denise

My husband will be starting his first erbitux treatment tomorrow before radiation starts on the 14th.  He will also be doing erbitux only, this is not in addition to another drug. The many doctors  at first could not agree whether to do erbitux or cisplatin though I am thinking we should be lucky they finally settled on the first of the two.

 What I am hoping is that the side effects really aren't as bad as they are for the cisplatin because as he gets his first dose tomorrow, he is having surgery on Thursday to get the feeding tube and I am wondering if that will be alot for his first week or is that just a prelude of whats to come anyways.

On 4/8/2008 g8orgal79 wrote:

My husband will be starting his first erbitux treatment tomorrow before radiation starts on the 14th.  He will also be doing erbitux only, this is not in addition to another drug. The many doctors  at first could not agree whether to do erbitux or cisplatin though I am thinking we should be lucky they finally settled on the first of the two.

 What I am hoping is that the side effects really aren't as bad as they are for the cisplatin because as he gets his first dose tomorrow, he is having surgery on Thursday to get the feeding tube and I am wondering if that will be alot for his first week or is that just a prelude of whats to come anyways.

 

I can only tell you from my brother in law's experience with the erbitux. He didnt have any side effects except being very tired the first time. The second dose was when his rash started to appear. The side effects from erbitux are nothing like the side effects from cisplatin. I believe erbitux is a targeted therapy and is actually an antibody. The only thing is the rash which most people get. But I hear that the rash is also a good sign that the erbitux is working. Of course there have been people who have no rash and it still works. I think he will be better off with the feeding tube because if it gets difficult to eat he will keep up his body weight and strength as long as he can use the tube. He may not need it but its good to have it just in case he does have a problem with food. After he is done with the chemo and Radiation they can easily remove it. My husband is now going into his 5th year of being cancer free from nasophyrangeal cancer. I know what you are going through. Try to stay strong and take care of yourself especially. God Bless you both and keep everyone here informed. These people are wonderful and will support you as much as they can.

Denise

I had Erbitux and Cisplatin.  I got the rash after the first dose.  It was a larger does than normal.  He called it a loading does.  After a couple of weeks the ends of my fingers split open.  I had bandages on literally all my fingers.  Also, the bottoms of my feet hurt.  It was painful to walk.  My doctor said both were normal.

BTW, the blisters on the rash will burst at the slightest touch.  Look forward to getting blood on everything :) 

On 4/9/2008 ThreePutt wrote:

I had Erbitux and Cisplatin.  I got the rash after the first dose.  It was a larger does than normal.  He called it a loading does.  After a couple of weeks the ends of my fingers split open.  I had bandages on literally all my fingers.  Also, the bottoms of my feet hurt.  It was painful to walk.  My doctor said both were normal.

BTW, the blisters on the rash will burst at the slightest touch.  Look forward to getting blood on everything :) 

 How are you doing now? You are a survivor which means to me that you got through this horrendous treatment and survived. God Bless you.

Denise

I have a question; how long after the treatment did you get the rash? Hubby made it through his loading dose today, and so far so good.  He seems to be a little tired but thats it so far! 

 I'm going great! (knock wood)  Almost like it never happened.

Thanks,

Tom

On 4/9/2008 Denise1156 wrote:

 

On 4/9/2008 ThreePutt wrote:

I had Erbitux and Cisplatin.  I got the rash after the first dose.  It was a larger does than normal.  He called it a loading does.  After a couple of weeks the ends of my fingers split open.  I had bandages on literally all my fingers.  Also, the bottoms of my feet hurt.  It was painful to walk.  My doctor said both were normal.

BTW, the blisters on the rash will burst at the slightest touch.  Look forward to getting blood on everything :) 

 How are you doing now? You are a survivor which means to me that you got through this horrendous treatment and survived. God Bless you.

 

Denise