My husband was on Iressa, 23rd-27th of this month, it tore him up - n+v, severe lower extemity edema, made him groggy and incoherent. He stopped taking it after five days, couldn't take it any more. He passed away 3 days later. The lung tumor was nearly gone, it was the met. to the liver that there was not a thing we could do about.

From what I researched on Iressa, it is only given after two other forms of chemotherapy have been used and failed. It doesn't seem to have much promise and after what happened when my husband took it, I truly think it is nothing more than one last bit of false hope they are trying to offer dieing cancer victims while they take one last dip into their insurance comapanies coffers.

I am truly sorry to bear such ugly tidings. You have no idea how much I wish I could say this drug works. I wanted it to work so bad. But it didn't, it made it worse in his case. I'd advise your loved one not to even take it if the cancer has ANY liver involvement.

We knew my husband did not have long, a few weeks, maybe a month. Thanks to Iressa, it was over within one week. Even a day is precious. To be robbed of even one is heart breaking. Let your loved one live out what time he/she has without more chemicals robbing their strength, mental acuity and dignity.

My mother started on Iressa two weeks ago. She has had both chemo and radiation was deemed not a surgical option because of her age 80 and the poor condition of her other lung. She was diagnosed in November and staged at 31/2. She was very optomistic about Iressa but now is feeling discouraged because of suffering diarrhea almost daily. She is on Medicare and has supplimental ARRP insurance but Iressa is not covered. The cost is astonishing $1700.00 for 30 pills enough for one month.I hope she starts feeling better but with diarrhea she doesn't want to eat and she has alteady lost so much weight. Down from 160 to 110. So we are waiting to see and hoping that she adjusts to this new drug and starts to improve. Best of luck to you and your family . This is very hard.

Our experience was much like Brigid's. My mother had NSCLC and had been holding off the tumor's growth for about 2 months after several months of chemo. Then the tumor was growing with great speed. No chemo was working then. So her dr. actually did not mention IRESSA - I did. I had done my own research. You know how it is - you feel the dr.'s aren't doing enough so you try and find something that may work. I had actually read studies conducted (mostly in Japan) of people who had great success with this drug so I mentioned it to the dr as a last ditch effort when the dr. told us that there was nothing left to do - I said what about IRESSA? At the time it was still a "trial drug" so there was no cost involved for us - that was the only good thing. My mother began taking the IRESSA Jan - 03 and immediately had explosive diarrhea. Then severe vomitting and d. at the same time. She too lost probably 50 pounds or more. It didn't help for her - but who knows your mother in law may be one of the miracles - you just never know. If she doesn't try it you will always wonder if it might have worked. We lost my mom in May, my heart still aches for her and dad we also lost him in May of cancer. This is a terrible thing to go through - but I would have tried anything to give them a few more days. Good Luck - Hope B.

My mother started taking Iressa 3 weeks ago. She had severe diarrhea for about a week, now seems to have decreased. I was wondering from briget's post from 8/03 if her family member is still on Iressa and if it has helped?

In my mother's case, IRESSA worked wonder on her. My mother is nsclc, had reoccurance(?) one year after she did the surgery, there were spots all over her both lungs again. The doctor only gave her six months. After she had several round of chemos, she started taking IRESSA. Three months later, the CT scan showed the there were fewer and smaller spots, and another three months later, all the spots were gone! She has been taking it for one and half year now, tumor free and felt great. The only side effect is minor diahrea.

Just an up date on my mom and Iressa. She took it only for one month because of feeling so much worse on the drug. She lost down to 99lbs and was hardly able to eat for fear of gastric problems. It is a month later now and finally she is feeling better and starting to eat a resonable amount to keep her weight stable. When you factor in the expence of it and feeling so crummy she didn't feel it was worth it to take the small chance that it would help. She may have a small liver met ,something showed on the catscan but she refused to have a biopsy taken. It is interesting to consider that there maybe a connection between low tolerence for Iressa and liver involvement. Blessings to all of you living with this tragic disease. Brigid

My brother has had good results from Iressa. Three months on it and all scans are clear. Had mets to the mediastinum. NSCLC. No severe side effects so far. It is working for him.