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07-26-2004, 07:59 AM

Hi

I know it's a while since your post so you have probably already made up your mind by now. But this information may be useful to others in the same position.

My partner Debbie has been on GW572016 for 10 weeks now. When she started the trial she had a tumour in her lung measuring 19mm plus extensive skin mets (rash) on the whole of her left arm (which has lymphoedema) her left hand her left shoulder plus patches dotted around her back and torso. The tumour and rash had been reduced with previous rounds of Chemotherapy (6 x AC 5 x Taxotir 6 x Xeloda) over the last two and a half years but always eventually returned meaning a different approach needed to be tried. Although her initial breast tumour removed was tested and found to be her2+ after 28 weeks of Herceptin that was also failing to keep the cancer at bay.
And so now she is on the new (we pray) wonderdrug GW572016. Initial response is VERY positive. The skin mets I described have very nearly all disappeared. The difference is phenomenal. Her oncologist and clinical trial nurse could barely contain their delight when they compared them to the photographs taken at the start of the trial. The scan on her lung tumour showed that it has not grown at all but is the same size at 19mm. If GW572016 can keep it at this size we would be delighted as she is in reasonably good health and would certainly live with that. To be honest I was slightly disappointed at the scan result. Having seen the difference in the skin mets I was hoping the lung tumour would have started to shrink but maybe that was hoping for too much after 8 weeks. We'll be going for another CT scan in 6 weeks time so i'll keep anyone who's interested posted on the results.

Hope this helps.

07-26-2004, 07:59 AM	#2
Ant Guest Posts: n/a	Hi I know it's a while since your post so you have probably already made up your mind by now. But this information may be useful to others in the same position. My partner Debbie has been on GW572016 for 10 weeks now. When she started the trial she had a tumour in her lung measuring 19mm plus extensive skin mets (rash) on the whole of her left arm (which has lymphoedema) her left hand her left shoulder plus patches dotted around her back and torso. The tumour and rash had been reduced with previous rounds of Chemotherapy (6 x AC 5 x Taxotir 6 x Xeloda) over the last two and a half years but always eventually returned meaning a different approach needed to be tried. Although her initial breast tumour removed was tested and found to be her2+ after 28 weeks of Herceptin that was also failing to keep the cancer at bay. And so now she is on the new (we pray) wonderdrug GW572016. Initial response is VERY positive. The skin mets I described have very nearly all disappeared. The difference is phenomenal. Her oncologist and clinical trial nurse could barely contain their delight when they compared them to the photographs taken at the start of the trial. The scan on her lung tumour showed that it has not grown at all but is the same size at 19mm. If GW572016 can keep it at this size we would be delighted as she is in reasonably good health and would certainly live with that. To be honest I was slightly disappointed at the scan result. Having seen the difference in the skin mets I was hoping the lung tumour would have started to shrink but maybe that was hoping for too much after 8 weeks. We'll be going for another CT scan in 6 weeks time so i'll keep anyone who's interested posted on the results. Hope this helps.