Pressing Pain - 1269925

rebecca2015
Posts:19

My boyfriend has now taken tarceva for 38 days. After doing a CT scan on the 24th day of taking tarceva, we found out that his tumor shrunk 1cm of 5 cm, butthe bone lesion has grown larger. His doctor has stated that typically scan are not taken this early so maybe the drug has not fully taken into effect. One thing we are concern about while we wait out the 90 days is the pressing of the tumor to his stomach that makes it difficult for him to breath and when he cough, it hurts. Is his symptom typical for someone that have taken tarceva for a month?

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JimC
Posts: 2753

Hi Rebecca,

As your boyfriend's doctor has indicated, a month may not be long enough to get a good idea of how well Tarceva is working, although the reduction in the size of his tumor is encouraging. If the symptoms you describe (pain from tumor pressing on his stomach, painful cough) existed prior to his starting Tarceva, then it seems likely that Tarceva has not yet made enough of a difference to lessen those symptoms. If they are new, then he will probably want to discuss with his doctor whether these are side effects of treatment or symptoms of his cancer. Tarceva can cause abdominal pain, but so can a tumor pressing on structures in that area.

I hope that he feels better soon.

JimC
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