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Switch from Tagrisso to Tarceva?


Eugenia Gregorio

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Are there any success stories about people that went from altima/carbo/keytruda (2 sessions) to Tagrisso (for 30 days) but then got a bad side effect - pneumonitis and then pneumonia - and had to switch to Tarceva? I read so many great stories about Tagrisso being a miracle drug and I'm devastated that my mom can't go back on it because it was definitely working until she got pneumonitis and then pneumonia after a month. Looking for some hope here!

Here are more details:  My mom is 72 yrs old, retired in North Carolina with my dad 15 yrs ago, was a cancer researcher for 40 years (her last project was working on drugs related to EGFR in fact!), and was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer in late December 2018. (spread to her bones - mostly covering her spine top to bottom). She is being treated at Zimmer Cancer Center in Wilmington, NC (an hour from their house) and after 2 sessions of chemo/keytruda and lots of trips to the hospital for dehydration, weakness, pleural effusion (she now has a tube in her lungs to pump out fluid every couple days) - the oncologist found out she was eligible for Tagrisso but I don't know the specific mutation and have no idea why it took over 6 weeks to get results back for gene therapy. She took Tagrisso for 30 days, while living in a rehab center to get her strength back, and was doing so much better and meds were working per scans when discharged a few weeks ago but a week after being home was rushed back to the hospital due to Pneumonitis (3-5% complication from the Tagrisso) and stayed in the hospital 2 weeks to monitor her lung inflammation and get oxygen and immediately taken off Tagrisso. She was discharged a week ago from the hospital with oxygen and steroids, started taking Tarceva 2 days ago, and was in the hospital yesterday and again today to now be told she has pneumonia and needs to be monitored.

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