Rash From Tarceva

My mother has been receiving Tarceva for two months now. After the first 2 weeks she developed a terrible rash that stopped her even from sleeping well in the evenings and was unbearable during the day. She tried many things that doctors suggested and all failed. By pure chance she tried a cream that is called Bepanthol (Roche) and the next day the rash dissapeared and until now never came back. Please forward this info to anyone that you know that is receiving Tarceva.

My brother is taking same Chemo and he
has a severe rash. Nothing is helping
him. Where can you buy the cream and
what strength did you buy? I would
like for my brother to try it.....
He is so miserable.

Thanks

where do you get the cream

Hi, Whomever wrote about the face/body cream called Bepanthol (Roche),

for the TARCEVA treatment rash, would you have more info, where to get it.....pharmacy or off the counter, etc. etc. please and let me know for my mom. She is just going into the 3rd. week of Tarceva and definitly getting a hotter, sunburn type face, and moving to eyelids and who knows what next.  Great hearing these tips, thanks alot.

Desperatedly wanting to know more about the cream you used on your mom....more info, where get????? please, thanks. Hope things worked out for your mom.

I can't find any reference to bepanthol being for sale in the US - only in Europe.

 However, my mom has been on Tarceva for 6 months. For the dry skin and rash we had her bathe and lotion with Lindiskin and it is great for overcoming the dry skin.  You can get it at www.lindiskin.com

 I guess sound like an advertisement for it - but gee - it works so good. Mom is so happy with it!

 Also try Biotene mouthwash - can get at Walmart or almost any drug store for the dry mouth associated with Tarceva.

Thanks, Thanks.  FYI we tried the regime suggested by praticaltruisms.com with the almond oil and Eurecin cream, thinking it was great, then boom she broke out terrible and we are considering that she is alergic to wool clothing, so therefore maybe she was allergic to the Eucerin cream as it has lanolin in it. Who would think! So now were off that stuff and just hoping it gets better. Right now we are only using Aloe Vera gel as everything hurts to put anything on it. He face looks like she laid in the sun for a whole day, and it it burns and is so hot. We stopped the Traceva temporarily to try to clear thisup. I will order some lidi skin also, and actually I am going to Europe in a couple months and will look for that other cream you first suggested.  Pharmacy, over the counter?  Good luck to you. This website has been invaluable to me these tips, as I am new to the whole computer scene.

Based on what I read, the Bepanthol is over the counter in Europe. Good luck. I hope something works for her.

Hi there, I hate to be pesty here, but was your mom's rash like this: Almost beet red, like a terrible sunburn, hot, sore, itchy. Not blotchy type, but solid red and somewhat swollen.She didn't even want to touch it for 3-4 days untill we stopped the Tarceva and that probably is getting out of her system. It is sohard on her nerves. 1 week later, it is way less red, and now it actually looks more like a dry skin rash and flaking all the time. Acting like the recovery of a seriously bad sunburn now, maybe more like some of you other people have had.  Did yours get like this, the solid red burn? I mean she is discouraged and I'm trying to find out if this is usual, she just has to get through this then start up again, or hers was a an extreme case? Something she just has to live with?  What dosage does your mom take. What is her skin like now, details, compared to before. Is her body accepting the tareceva better. I mean my mom doesn't ever want it to get that bad again, it looked dangerous. Your thoughts, thanks so much.

My mom's rash didn't seem to get as extreme as what you are describing. However, it did go into the extremely dry skin. Mom would say when she rolled over at night in the bed it would feel like her skin was tearing it would hurt so bad.  Now, her skin is so soft!  It was a couple of days after using the LindiSkin that it really started showing improvement, and now it's just like it used to be.  But when it was so dry it was peeling in really big pieces like peeling from a bad sunburn as you described. She could literally pull off strips of skin.  About the time she started using the LindiSkin products, she also dropped her Tarceva dosage from 150mg down to 100mg.  I think the combination of dropping the dosage (at her request - not the doctor's idea - she told them either drop it or she was going off) and the Lindiskin is what pulled her through. 

If your mom can tolerate the Tarceva, I really think it would be good.  I'm not sure if I mentioned in my previous post, but my mom has been on Tarceva and Gemzar for 6 months. Her CA19-9 has dropped from over 38,000 to 44 last week. The doctor believes three more weeks of treatment and she will be considered in remission. This from advanced PC without hope of any surgery, and being given 3 months to live without chemo!