Hello! My husband is 28 years old and started Tarceva (150mg) about 5 weeks ago - he already reaped max benefits from Alimta & Cisplatin (50% shrinkage of lung tumor and everything else is stable or dead). He has Stage IV NSCLC with mets to the bone and a tiny spot on the liver, only one mass in lung that is less than 1" big and few nodules in right lung. His docs put him on metacycline (antibiotic) at the same time he started Tarceva. They were expecting a horrid rash because he has a EGFR level of 3+ (masses exhibit 3x more then average amount then the normal person), which is good because that's what Tarceva goes after. Anyway, my husband goes to a research hospital (Duke) and they have had great results on stopping the rash before it starts with metacycline... my husband has not had any rash and the doctors are thrilled... also we know of someone whose lung tumor shrunk 90% on Tarceva and she hasn't gotten a rash either... so the lack of a rash doesn't mean it's not working. Plus, I know many people who got an awful rash and Tarceva did nothing for them... so, just FYI that the rash isn't a guarantee for anything. As with my husband, who knows because they gave him the antibotic and we're certain that is what is stopping it.
My husband is doing very well and we get the next scans end of March. My question is this... he has some intermediate lung aching in his left lung since starting Tarceva... it comes and goes and he said it's more of a discomfort than a true pain. His doctors did a chest x-ray last week to ensure that he wasn't having a reaction and everything on the chest x-ray looked really good so we're continuing on as planned. We've had one other person tell us that they experience lung aching too but I don't see online where others have experienced the same... his doctors seem to think this is a side-effect of Tarceva and aren't worried. But, I was just wondering who else has experienced this? We believe that the aching is just from healing...
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