Celebrex

[Bonnie]

Today's announcement was a shock to us. Howard has been on 400mg of Celebrex for about 1 year. We asked our oncologist if he would write the prescription for it when we found out they were using it in a clinical trial.

Should Howard stop taking the Celebrex based on the news that was released? He has had some change in his aorta that was dx'd as hardening of the arteries, but is taking a new medicine for that.

He just had his scans and MRI and everything is clear. Help!

Thanks,

Bonnie and Howard

[Elaine]

What's the deal with celebrex???

elaine

[teresag]

Elaine, today it was announced that Celebrex causes heart problems similar to those found with Vioxx. Here's a story on it:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=s ... elebrex_16

NIH press release here:

http://www.nih.gov/news/pr/dec2004/od-17.htm

Bonnie, Howard should call his oncologist ASAP to discuss stopping the drug and ask about having his heart evaluated. The news sounds as if the risk with 400 mg is less than that with 800 mg, fortunately. Best of luck to you and him, Teresa

[kimblanchard]

You really need to talk to your doctor about this one. I will say that I think these results are skewed by the fact that the control groups were receiving traditional anti-inflammatory meds which actually reduce risk of heart attack. I suspect that some of what we are seeing is not so much that Celebrex causes heart attacks as it is that the study group was not taking medication that reduces the risk.

Having said that, it must also be remembered that there is NO DATA that taking Celebrex or any COX-2 inhibitor improves the risk of lung cancer recurrence. If you are taking the drug for that reason alone, I think you have to ask if the potential but unproven benefit appears to outweight the now more fully documented risks.