16th November 2006
I too do not know why they do not try Tarceva? What have you got to loose as it will either help which could be a dramatic change or it will do nothing. Yes it is expensive but hey this is your life!
Early in all my research I read a story about a woman that was admitted to the hopsital with a bad pneumonia that required intubation do to extremely low oxygen levels and being placed on a ventilator. Even on the ventilator with 100% oxygen being given and maximum ventilator support they could not get her oxygen levels in her blood to come up. Doctors did not expect her to make it through the night but she did. Xrays showed she not only had a pneumonia but had lung cancer too so the doctors told her husband that she had less the a 5% chance of coming off the ventilator and leaving the hospital alive. Then her doctor decided to try Irressa( along with her IV antibiotics) and I guess they must have crushed the pills and put them down feeding tube,Within hours yes hours her oxygen levels started coming up and within 2 days she was off the ventilator and doing alot better and a few days later went home and was continued on Irressa with dramatic improvement in her lung cancer all because her doctor felt "what have I got to loose?" Instead of making funeral arrangements her husband took her home where she continued to do well and was extremely worried when they decided to pull Iressa from the Market. It was her dramatic improvement and story that made me feel so very hopeful about Irressa then Tarceva when Irressa was pulled from the market. My mom's own dramatic improvemnet after starting it when she too had the pneumonia makes it hard for me to understand why some dotors are so unwilling to try it.
For those of you new here Iressa was pulled from the market as they claimed it really did not work that well and new clinical trials were run that supported this so they took it off the market at about the same time Tarceva was approved. An interesting aspect of this is that there is another message board where there were a number of people that started Irressa back in the original clinical trials or right after it was approved and when I first read their stories some were 3 years or more NED ( No Evedience of Disease) so someone please tell me how is that the drug was not working? They have since been switched to Tarceva and most but not all have continued NED on it! Thank God!
My take on it is that the truth is only a small percent of people responded to Irresse so sad to say that did not mean big profits for the drug company so they did not want to have to continue making the drug as it was not a big money maker so re-ran clinical trials to support their decision and claim it did not work that well.( it would be easy to stack a clinical trial in favor of people that would not respond being that it is only a small percent that do respond). So if you question an earlier post about money being the thing that drives drug companies and not our health like they want you to believe how else can you explain taking a drug that was keeping a small percent of lung cancer patients NED for 3+ years off the market?
There was some other drug I can't recall what it was for that did not do well in the human market but worked well on dogs yet the company pulled it as they did not stand to make enough money on a drug that was only used by dogs despite the fact it was saving the lives of the dogs.My vet told me about this as he and I have had some great chats when I take the dogs in to see him. JanMarie
Early in all my research I read a story about a woman that was admitted to the hopsital with a bad pneumonia that required intubation do to extremely low oxygen levels and being placed on a ventilator. Even on the ventilator with 100% oxygen being given and maximum ventilator support they could not get her oxygen levels in her blood to come up. Doctors did not expect her to make it through the night but she did. Xrays showed she not only had a pneumonia but had lung cancer too so the doctors told her husband that she had less the a 5% chance of coming off the ventilator and leaving the hospital alive. Then her doctor decided to try Irressa( along with her IV antibiotics) and I guess they must have crushed the pills and put them down feeding tube,Within hours yes hours her oxygen levels started coming up and within 2 days she was off the ventilator and doing alot better and a few days later went home and was continued on Irressa with dramatic improvement in her lung cancer all because her doctor felt "what have I got to loose?" Instead of making funeral arrangements her husband took her home where she continued to do well and was extremely worried when they decided to pull Iressa from the Market. It was her dramatic improvement and story that made me feel so very hopeful about Irressa then Tarceva when Irressa was pulled from the market. My mom's own dramatic improvemnet after starting it when she too had the pneumonia makes it hard for me to understand why some dotors are so unwilling to try it.
For those of you new here Iressa was pulled from the market as they claimed it really did not work that well and new clinical trials were run that supported this so they took it off the market at about the same time Tarceva was approved. An interesting aspect of this is that there is another message board where there were a number of people that started Irressa back in the original clinical trials or right after it was approved and when I first read their stories some were 3 years or more NED ( No Evedience of Disease) so someone please tell me how is that the drug was not working? They have since been switched to Tarceva and most but not all have continued NED on it! Thank God!
My take on it is that the truth is only a small percent of people responded to Irresse so sad to say that did not mean big profits for the drug company so they did not want to have to continue making the drug as it was not a big money maker so re-ran clinical trials to support their decision and claim it did not work that well.( it would be easy to stack a clinical trial in favor of people that would not respond being that it is only a small percent that do respond). So if you question an earlier post about money being the thing that drives drug companies and not our health like they want you to believe how else can you explain taking a drug that was keeping a small percent of lung cancer patients NED for 3+ years off the market?
There was some other drug I can't recall what it was for that did not do well in the human market but worked well on dogs yet the company pulled it as they did not stand to make enough money on a drug that was only used by dogs despite the fact it was saving the lives of the dogs.My vet told me about this as he and I have had some great chats when I take the dogs in to see him. JanMarie