increase the dose of Iressa - 1250254

waterspring
Posts:6

My father was diagnosed as advanced NSCLS. He is 74 years old asian man. He was smoking more than 20 years. He gave up smoking in 2009. Currently he has a tumor (6cm) on his left lung and a tumor (1.5cm) in brain. He has been taking Iressa for 3 weeks and develop few rush on his face. Should he try to increase the dose of Iressa? Any successful case? Is there any harmful by increaseing the dose?

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Reply # - November 14, 2012, 11:57 AM

certain spring
Posts: 762

Hallo again, waterspring. May I ask, did you decide to use Iressa from AstraZeneca or the Geftinat generic alternative we discussed on your earlier thread?
http://cancergrace.org/topic/iressa-geftinat
My understanding is that if the Iressa is going to work for your father, it will work at the standard dose. Standard doses are based on what patients have been able to tolerate in clinical trials, and increasing it could make your father ill. One of the doctors will be able to explain this better than I can. I really hope the Iressa works well for your father. Best wishes.

Reply # - November 14, 2012, 12:59 PM

waterspring
Posts: 6

Thanks Certain spring. My sisters and I decided to use Iressa from Astrazeneca for the first couple of months, then transfer to Geftinat Generic alternative. Because my sister learned that other patients (1 or 2) buy the Geftinat Generic alternative from internet (alternative one, price is less 1/10 than Iressa from Astrazeneca ) and it works well (She almost talked with every patient/ patient's relative she could met in hospital. And in our culture, most of time people do not mind to talk the topic). We are discussing how to avoid buying the fake drug.

Reply # - November 14, 2012, 09:35 PM

Dr West
Posts: 4735

There is no convincing evidence that patients do clearly better with a higher dose of Iressa (gefitinib). In fact, the current standard dose of 250 mg is the current standard dose because patients on 500 mg daily didn't do any better than the patients who were on 250 mg daily -- they just experienced more side effects.

-Dr. West

Reply # - November 19, 2012, 11:02 AM

waterspring
Posts: 6

Thanks, Dr. West

I do not ask my father to increase the dose of Iressa. I called my dad yesterday. He told me he developed some rash on his back. Hope he can benifit from the drug.

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