erbitux

My Dad is getting Erbitux for Stage IV Colon Cancer.  He had his 2nd dose yesterday and just started noticing a little rash on his face last night.  FYI- His Dr. told us Erbitux (Centuximab) is the Martha Stewart Drug. (The one she went to prison for because she received an inside tip that Centuximab would be the next big thing on the medical market!)

 I hope everyone is right and this Erbitux (Centuximab) is as good as you say it is! My Dad and my family can use all the help we can get right now.

Dina

On 4/10/2008 ThreePutt wrote:

My thumb and index fingers still split open (18 months post).  Not as often and they don't bleed as much, but still painful.

I'm so sorry about that but I'm happy you are alive and in remission. Stay healthy and God bless you

Denise

Don't fear Erbitux! I had a total of 7 treatments with it for nasopharyngeal cancer, once a week, along with 33 rads. It caused a rash on my face (not too horrible) and very dry skin after the second dose, but otherwise no problems. I was lucky that the Drs. decided not to try other chemo along with it. It's not really a chemotherapy- type drug at all, it just prepares the cancer cells and makes them more receptive to radiation, and at this point there are no visible cells left but am awaiting a PET scan. 

  Best wishes,

  Becky  

I was given a small tube of Biafine for the rash but honestly, it didn't help all that much. As I said, mine wasn't all that bad but some people get it worse than others, and it went away almost literally overnight as soon as my last treatment ended. As other posters have said, a rash is a good sign that it's working!

All the best, Becky 

It's nice to see some encouraging things about the erbitux.  It's funny my husband's doctors went back and forth; The chemo doctor says first erbitux; the the radiation oncologist and ENT say no you need cisplatin. The next week the chemo doctor again says yes we are back to erbitux, a study just hours ago came out, etc. etc. etc.  I felt the first ray of light since we found out about this thing back on 3/25.

 He got his feeding tube last Thursday, which is finally starting to feel better, he has his second dose or erbitux tomorrow and he had his first of 42 radiation treatments (with the amifostine shot) this afternoon.

 My question is this though, when he came back from the rad treatment his lump looked bigger to me.  I don't know if I was completely imagining this or does this happen at all? It sounds silly typing this out now, but I am just curious.

On 4/15/2008 wordweasel wrote:

Don't fear Erbitux! I had a total of 7 treatments with it for nasopharyngeal cancer, once a week, along with 33 rads. It caused a rash on my face (not too horrible) and very dry skin after the second dose, but otherwise no problems. I was lucky that the Drs. decided not to try other chemo along with it. It's not really a chemotherapy- type drug at all, it just prepares the cancer cells and makes them more receptive to radiation, and at this point there are no visible cells left but am awaiting a PET scan. 

  Best wishes,

  Becky  

  

Hi Becky

 Well your post kind of worries me. My brother in law just finished with erbitux. He will get a scan Monday. the only thing is he has been fighting his nasphyarngeal cancer for 7 years. He's had his total allotment of Radiation and can have no more. He couldn't take the cisplatin or the carboplatin this last time, so they put him on Erbitux. He did get a rash. The only thing is it is being used without any radiation or anything else. Reading your post now I have a fear it won't work because if it prepares the cells for radiation what happens if there is no radiation to follow? Also I was reading up on cyberknife therapy and talked to a few people about it.. I was wondering if anyone had any experience with that? Good Luck and God Bless the both of you.

Thanks

Denise