TARCEVAThe first round of this epic battle between good and evil is over. In one corner are the cancers: stage 4 lung, metastases in brain, bone and spleen. In the other corner are Albert, his medical and support teams and a relatively new cancer drug, Tarceva.
After all the counting of tumors in my head and lungs, the judges have unanimously awarded the first round to team Albert. All tumors have shrunk. The largest marble in my head shrank from 2.6cm to 1.6 cm. The largest in my lung looks like it shrank from 3.6cm to 1.2 cm, though the reports are slightly ambiguous. Many of the smaller tumors disappeared! My hip, which sent me to the ER has not hurt throughout the whole ordeal. This is without any pain killers.
So far a clear victory.
Even better, there was a clear consensus amoung the doctors to forego/cancel traditional Chemotherapy and stay the course with my single agent targeted treatment, Tarceva. Through clinical trials, Tarceva has shown some good results for never-smoking, asians with adenocarcinoma, right up my alley. Funny, results for most others are poor.
All I do now for treatment is take ONE small pill a day. Which is basically what I have been doing after the initial Wide Brain Radiation. It causes a slight rash but very easily taken care of. I basically eperience very little of the side effects of that even a stage 1 cancer patient experiences. Looks like I will skip all the discomforts of chemotherapy and risks. Though, the price tag on just 1 Tarceva pill is $113!!! That is an expensive pill.
It looks like I am going to ride the Tarceva wave for the foreseeable future.
