New Lung Cancer Drugs that also work wonder - besides Tarceva, check out

Check patient tumors express or contain (gene) mutations in the following:

EGFR (Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor - wild-type or mutant type)

VEGFR 1, 2 and 3 (Vascular epithelial growth factor receptor 1, 2 and 3)

C-Kit (tyrosine kinase growth factor receptor for stem cell factor)  the cancer drug Gleevec works by targeting this receptor - SCLC and non-SCLC are known to make this receptor, not all but some
PDGF (Platelet growth factor receptor)

Multiple kinases inhibitors like sunitinib (sutent) or sorafenib, sunitinib works on VEGFR2 and PDGFR, as well as inhibiting c-KIT, FLT-3, and RET ; gleevec (STI571 or Imatinib) works on C-kit, PDGF; or Vandetanib (ZD6474) ZD6474 is an oral inhibitor of VEGFR2, EGFR, and RET; it is being tested in multiple clinical trials in lung cancer.

HER2 (Human epidermal growth factor receptor 2) some lung cancers have mutations on the HER2, it seems to mutate a lot with asian, non-smoker, women with lung cancer - then you can treat it with Herceptin or lapatinib (Tykerb).

 

Some doctors might not know all of this, if they dont update their current knowledge...  but nothing wrong to ask and insist for gene mutation express test...     Dont GIVE UP or HOPE...

 

May God bless all suffering cancer disease patients.

Victoria

I'm currently in a clinical trial for Sutent (sunitinib) and wanted to say it's working!  I was diagnosed 2 yrs ago with Stage IV NSCLC and have been treated with taxol and carboplatin; Tarceva and a new study drug by Pfizer - each time I stayed stable for a time then had some progression - never much growth but enough so I had to come off the drug.  I started on the Sutent in February; the first scans I had 6 weeks later showed actual improvement!  So I am still on it - I had to have my dose reduced because of the side effects but am still doing well.

One thing I have learned about cancer is that treatment is a series of battles and whatever time it buys adds up! 

Hi there!  Recently joined the message board and am reviewing past posts.  Found yours interesting, as I've never heard of Sutent before.  My sister has NSCLC (diagnosed in '04 - yes, 04!)  She's been on several different chemos, and Tarceva has been the most helpful- 2 years on it.  Her oncologist has just doubled the dosage (to 300mg) because it doesn't seem to be working as it originally did.  Possible suggestion is to switch to something called Erubitux.  Would like to hear about Sutent - how administered, side effects etc.  Many thanks.