PeggieH

[PeggieH]

Hello, I am new to Longevity.  Have stage 4 Lung Cancer and am taking Tarceva.  

[Mally]

Hi and welcome here and ask away any questions you may have because there are a lot of very knowledgeable and have a lot of experience in their journeys with lung cancer

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[LaurenH]

Hi, PeggieH,

Welcome to LCSC. We are glad that you've joined this online support community. This is a great place to connect with other patients/survivors and get to know caregivers and advocates whose lives have also been affected by lung cancer. Please feel free to join some of the conversations in the discussion threads or ask questions. There are many very knowledgeable members on this site who have a lot of experience. I am also happy to help you find additional resources and support. Feel free to post on this thread or message me directly with any questions/concerns about how to use this forum!

With gratitude,

Lauren
--
Digital Community Manager
LUNGevity Foundation

[MaryTD777]

Hi Peggy,
How are you? How long ago were you Dx? Was Tarceva your first & only treatment? If you want to talk, I'm around, as are others who have had the same treatment. Just holler when you're ready!
[emoji5]

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[Tom Galli]

Welcome Peggy,

I note you live at the gateway to the San Juan Islands in the beautiful Puget Sound.  I've been to Anacortes many times and enjoyed the wonderful "Shipwreck Day Festival" once. But, most enjoyable was watching the pods of killer whales from the top deck of the Washington State Ferry.  So, we have something in common - lung cancer and I've taken Tarceva.  But, my Tarceva experience was in 2006, well before the medical community understood it would only work on certain forms of adenocarcinoma that displayed epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutations.  My form of NSCLC is Squamous cell and Tarceva did not work for me.  But I know a lady who also lived in Washington State who survived 10 years with Tarceva controlled lung cancer.  It was so effective, she passed well into old age from a heart attack.  So Tarceva can be very effective.

Tarceva is one of the targeted therapies emerging from genetic research into adenocarcinoma (I hyperlinked targeted therapies so you can read about it if interested).  

You'll have many questions and this is a good place to ask them.  Side effects, for example, from my Tarceva experience was a severe rash on my head, face and neck, and problems with my gastrointestinal (GI) system.  On another early cancer forum, I asked about ways to control my GI difficulties and someone told me to have a bowl of plain steamed rice every morning.  That worked for me!

There are many long term survivors with late stage diagnosis on this site.  I recently celebrated 13 years of life.  If you are struggling with finding hope, consider if we can live, so can you.

Stay the course.

Tom