Stage 4 nsclc survivors

Dorothy1021
  • By Dorothy1021 · November 6, 2011 at 10:34 pm · 6 replies
  • In Non-small cell lung cancer - Stage IV
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My husband has been diagnosed with nsclc stage 4. The cancer has spread to bones in back, pelvic & femur. His doctor tested him for gene therapy & apparently he was in the 16% of people that would benefit from tarceva. Doctor said he had the mutation that tarceva would target. Does anyone know about this?

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6 replies   

seb

That means that you husband is likely to be EGFR + and that he have many chances to responde to Tarceva . Is a great drug, must be taken orally in a dayly basis with, in general, few side effects manageable.
Blessings
Seb

squanch

You're referring to the EGFR mutation. I think it's standard of care to test lung cancer tumors for it.

There's lots of people who take Tarceva here, and many posts on this site about Tarceva. You can search for the posts by entering "Tarceva" in the blank textbox near the top of this page and click on "Find it."

You might start by reading this post:
http://www.inspire.com/groups/lung-cancer-survivors/discussion/tarceva-diva s-and-dudes-discussion-and-support-36/

Dorothy1021

thank you

Dorothy1021

i am new to this and dont really understand the egfr gene. what does this mean? if he tested positivw this means he will respond favorably to Tarceva? thanks

squanch

Yes, if he has the EGFR mutation in his tumor cells, he is more likely to respond well to Tarceva. While not everyone who has the mutation responds to Tarceva, he's more have a good response to it than to other chemo drugs. Because Tarceva only targets the cancer cells that have the mutation, it doesn't affect healthy cells as much and therefore causes fewer side effects.

You can read more general info about Tarceva at
http://www.tarceva.com/patient/considering/about.jsp

CraiginPA

FYI, for an overview about gene mutations, this posting might be useful:

http://www.inspire.com/groups/lung-cancer-survivors/discussion/what-does-eg fr-mutation-gene-mean#cmnt_2553769

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