Husband on Clovis trial since July 2015. Has overcome several side-effects, the newest being diarrhea 3-4 x per day, his cough has been more persistent, 15 new brain mets that were treated on Friday with GK, last GK treatment 6 months ago. Also, recent CT showed a spot on the liver. He is EGFR Exon 21.
He has lost about 8 lbs, but this could be from the diarrhea, the endocrinologist stopping insulin plus he has had to fast a couple of x for appointments.
1. Given these side-effects, the 15 new brain mets that were just treated with GK on Friday and a spot on is liver, wouldn't it be prudent to get out of the Clovis trial and go onto Tagrisso since he has had luck with Tarceva as far as controlling his micro disease in his brain?
2. Does Exon matter as far as Tagrisso's effectiveness... my husband is "Exon 21"?
As always, thank you.
Reply # - November 22, 2015, 03:28 PM
With the progressive disease
With the progressive disease in brain, new liver metastasis, diarrhea, and weight loss that you describe, it seems a bit unusual that he is permitted to stay on the Clovis rociletinib trial.
In any case, it seems prudent to biopsy the liver tumor, send it for mutation testing. If he has the T790M mutation, then switch to commercial Tagrisso seems like an attractive choice.
It seems the development of the Clovis rociletinib drug has been beset by several setbacks. I hear the stock is down 70% last week. Apparently it has had lower than expected response rates <40%, and frequently can cause diabetes with insulin requirement. I don't think anyone can fault a patient for "jumping ship" to Tagrisso, given all the side effects with Clovis rociletinib. Hopefully it will be approved eventually, but it doesn't seem likely in next few months.