TARCEVA-- Squamous vs Adenocarcinoma

• By gpawelski
• Posted October 24, 2008 at 12:06 pm
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Targeted therapies like Tarceva may provide treatment options for some patients who may not otherwise be candidates for conventional chemotherapy. Many elderly patients may have medical comorbidities that limit the use of standard chemotherapy (like Cisplatin and Taxotere).

Targeted therapies such as Tarceva or Iressa can be less toxic and better tolerated than traditional chemotherapy, offering these patients additional treatment options. Now, whether Tarceva or Iressa will work better (without testing the tumor first), it is going to be on a trial-an-error basis.

Most patients are treated not with a targeted therapy drug alone but rather with a combination of chemotherapy drugs. But, for some patients, they can try targeted therapy alone.

Tarceva and Iressa are very similar drugs, small molecule inhibitors of tyrosine kinase, a key intermediary in the EGF pathway. If your cancer expresses the EGF receptor, Tarceva or Iressa may inhibit its expression and stabalize the cancer (it won't necessarily shrink a tumor).

Besides looking at apoptosis (cancer cell death), there is anti-angiogenesis (blood vessel cell death). Cell culture studies on human neoplastic tumors have shown that Tarceva has mixed antitumor AND anti-microvascular effects. Anti-microvascular effects of Tarceva and Iressa were equal to those of Sutent and Nexavar.

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• By planejocke
• Posted October 24, 2008 at 12:10 pm
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I see your in Arizona. I know that Mayo Clinic has a hospital/center there also. You may want a 2nd opinion and Mayo is very good.

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