Avastin/Tarceva

My father was taking Tarceva for a month, his oncologist is now recomending he begin Avastin. Although his tumor has not spread, he did not get the Tarceva rash. The oncologist concluded the Tarceva did not work. Has anyone gone from tarceva to avastin with success?

 

On 8/14/2009 mtn2078 wrote:

My father was taking Tarceva for a month, his oncologist is now recomending he begin Avastin. Although his tumor has not spread, he did not get the Tarceva rash. The oncologist concluded the Tarceva did not work. Has anyone gone from tarceva to avastin with success?

 

Is your dad taking the max dose of 150mg/day?  If he isn't, if he is taking only 50, 100, or 125mg, that could account for him not getting the rash. 

I'm sorry but being on tarceva only a month, that's a big conclusion for the onc to make.  Some people never get the rash and the tarceva still works.  Tarceva is used to keep the cancer from spreading and to shrink the tumors. 

Avastin is another ballgame.  It is used to stop blood flow to the tumor and has some heavy duty side effects.  Many people do use it but one of the warnings is it causes bleeding.  Be sure you do some research on it before you decide to go with it. 

I'm sure you will get other responses.  Good luck with whatever you decide and God Bless. 

 

I have Stage IV Lung cancer and started out my care with a clinical trial that added Avastin to the Tarceva.   The two dropped my tumors to about nothing in a month.   The Avastin was being shown to not add much to the Tarceva and it has a 5% chance of causing major bleeding and a 2% chance of bleeding leading to death.  My oncologist thought that danger was significant.   We elected to stop the clinical trial and just continue with the Tarceva.   I got a bit of rash and then almost no side effects on the Tarceva for 8 months.   One of the tumors began to grow again, so we stopped Tarceva (much to my dismay because I felt just wonderful on it) and now I'm on Carboplatin plus Alimta to stop that one tumor.  We'll ct scan in a week to see how the tumor is doing.   I don't like the chemo at all and worry about detrimental side effects.    We're hoping to get back on another trial with Tarceva plus anothe drug.  It's in Stage I of trials right now, which means they trying to find the correct doses.  I'd just as soon get on that regimen after they know how much to give me.   BUT, I had almost no side effects from the Tarceva and tremondous results.  Hope this helps.   

 

On 8/14/2009 mtn2078 wrote:

My father was taking Tarceva for a month, his oncologist is now recomending he begin Avastin. Although his tumor has not spread, he did not get the Tarceva rash. The oncologist concluded the Tarceva did not work. Has anyone gone from tarceva to avastin with success?

My husband just started tarceva 12 days ago and now has the expected rash and itch to go with it. His oncologist said we will know in thirty days if the drug is working. It is my understanding that not everyone gets this rash; did your Dr conclude it i'snt working based only on the rash not appearing?

Also, has anyone else experienced this; exactly 22 hours after the first Tarceva dose he had excessive bladder bleeding. The er Dr said all was ok and to continue with the drug. The bleeding stopped by the next day. Then a few days later while he was asleep got again an axcessive nose bleed. I have let his Dr know about this and was told to continue on. No further bleeding thank goodness.

Acid reflux is bad and i see on this site that some people are taking antacids (I know he can't take his normal meds for this problem) however our pharmisist has said no even to antacids.; she looked it up in her drug book. Any suggestions out there?

BTW his cancer is in his right lung and he had radiation for this and it was successful however the cancer has come back and has spread lowere in the same lung and thankfully no other organs are affected.

 He has never had Chemo

 

On 9/27/2009 Ailsa-Craig wrote:

 

On 8/14/2009 mtn2078 wrote:

My father was taking Tarceva for a month, his oncologist is now recomending he begin Avastin. Although his tumor has not spread, he did not get the Tarceva rash. The oncologist concluded the Tarceva did not work. Has anyone gone from tarceva to avastin with success?

My husband just started tarceva 12 days ago and now has the expected rash and itch to go with it. His oncologist said we will know in thirty days if the drug is working. It is my understanding that not everyone gets this rash; did your Dr conclude it i'snt working based only on the rash not appearing?

Also, has anyone else experienced this; exactly 22 hours after the first Tarceva dose he had excessive bladder bleeding. The er Dr said all was ok and to continue with the drug. The bleeding stopped by the next day. Then a few days later while he was asleep got again an axcessive nose bleed. I have let his Dr know about this and was told to continue on. No further bleeding thank goodness.

Acid reflux is bad and i see on this site that some people are taking antacids (I know he can't take his normal meds for this problem) however our pharmisist has said no even to antacids.; she looked it up in her drug book. Any suggestions out there?

BTW his cancer is in his right lung and he had radiation for this and it was successful however the cancer has come back and has spread lowere in the same lung and thankfully no other organs are affected.

 He has never had Chemo