12th June 2007
Bloomerz,
Don't give up all hope as there are some amazing drugs out and some in the pipeline for NSCLC. My mom was NSCLC Stage IV and she lived 2.5 yrs. After her first chemo she was given Iressa then the next month changed to Tarceva ( which was just released) Tarceva did away with her lung tumor and worked on her liver mets for several months but eventually they started to grow: However when mom died she still had no cancer in her lungs. There is a 2nd drug called HKI272 in clinical trials that is suppose to take over when Tarceva quits working. We could not get my mom into any of the clinical trials because by then she had had more then one chemo. I have met people that used Irressa and or Tarceva and are a couple years on it and have no evidence of disease ( NED).
Tarceva works best on three subgroups, # 1 non smokers, #2 females, # 3 Asian people but that is not to say it will not work on others as I have met men that fit none of the sub groups and it has worked..is it a cure? I would say No but in some it can control the cancer alot longer then any chemo or radiation can.
There is also Avastin which cuts off the blood supply to the cancer and is showing alot of promise for somepeople.
Do not listen to doctors time frames as they really do not know, my mom was told 6 months with no treatment a year with treatment and she made it to 2.5 yrs .
There are also things like Cyberknife that can zap out tumors as we looked into that for my mom but by that time she had too many liver mets.
Researching treatments can make a big difference as doctors do not know everything out there. My mom's oncologist did not know about cyberknife and argued with me for 20 -30 minutes despite my having told him I had already spoken to the doctors that do it at Stanford, finally he admitted he know little about radiation as his speciality is Chemo.
I was the one that brought up the Iressa and Tarceva and he did not seem to feel they would do much good, turned out he was wrong.
Your friends life is between she and God and no one else and only God knows when she has lived long enough. This board is a good place to come for advice or even just to vent as we have all been there or are currently there.
I like to point out that being told you have terminal cancer does not really move you to another playing field when it comes to life as not one of us knows when we will die anyone of us could drop dead in the next minute from dozens of different reasons all your friend has gotten is a calling card. In away that calling card is not so bad as it makes you look at life and gives you time to wrap things up so that when the end does come you can continue on to the souls next journey in peace. I have worked in a hospital for 25 yrs and believe me alot of people die from unexpected deaths and then the family and friends are left with things like " when was the last time I told her I loved her?"" what was the last thing I said to her? " I can tell you from my own experience with my mom I know the answer to all of those questions as we had time to prepare.
I will send prayes for your friend. She is lucky to have a good friend like you. JanMarie
Don't give up all hope as there are some amazing drugs out and some in the pipeline for NSCLC. My mom was NSCLC Stage IV and she lived 2.5 yrs. After her first chemo she was given Iressa then the next month changed to Tarceva ( which was just released) Tarceva did away with her lung tumor and worked on her liver mets for several months but eventually they started to grow: However when mom died she still had no cancer in her lungs. There is a 2nd drug called HKI272 in clinical trials that is suppose to take over when Tarceva quits working. We could not get my mom into any of the clinical trials because by then she had had more then one chemo. I have met people that used Irressa and or Tarceva and are a couple years on it and have no evidence of disease ( NED).
Tarceva works best on three subgroups, # 1 non smokers, #2 females, # 3 Asian people but that is not to say it will not work on others as I have met men that fit none of the sub groups and it has worked..is it a cure? I would say No but in some it can control the cancer alot longer then any chemo or radiation can.
There is also Avastin which cuts off the blood supply to the cancer and is showing alot of promise for somepeople.
Do not listen to doctors time frames as they really do not know, my mom was told 6 months with no treatment a year with treatment and she made it to 2.5 yrs .
There are also things like Cyberknife that can zap out tumors as we looked into that for my mom but by that time she had too many liver mets.
Researching treatments can make a big difference as doctors do not know everything out there. My mom's oncologist did not know about cyberknife and argued with me for 20 -30 minutes despite my having told him I had already spoken to the doctors that do it at Stanford, finally he admitted he know little about radiation as his speciality is Chemo.
I was the one that brought up the Iressa and Tarceva and he did not seem to feel they would do much good, turned out he was wrong.
Your friends life is between she and God and no one else and only God knows when she has lived long enough. This board is a good place to come for advice or even just to vent as we have all been there or are currently there.
I like to point out that being told you have terminal cancer does not really move you to another playing field when it comes to life as not one of us knows when we will die anyone of us could drop dead in the next minute from dozens of different reasons all your friend has gotten is a calling card. In away that calling card is not so bad as it makes you look at life and gives you time to wrap things up so that when the end does come you can continue on to the souls next journey in peace. I have worked in a hospital for 25 yrs and believe me alot of people die from unexpected deaths and then the family and friends are left with things like " when was the last time I told her I loved her?"" what was the last thing I said to her? " I can tell you from my own experience with my mom I know the answer to all of those questions as we had time to prepare.
I will send prayes for your friend. She is lucky to have a good friend like you. JanMarie