Erbitux Treatment And Rash!

[camicom]

Hey Guys Im still here. Going into year 3 of fighting the monster. In the lst 6 months I have had Y90 and my gangrenous gallbladder removed. Was on Xeloda/ Avastin mantinence, unless I started having some growth. On my 2nd line of Folfox, and this time they have added Erbitux since Im Kras Wild. I am 7 days into it and have quite the rash going. Torso, head, neck, and face. They say the worse the rash, the better its working. I should be cancer free in a week then(LOL). So far the face is the only issue Im having, feels like a bad sunburn on my nose and cheeks. I am going to use Hydro Creme for that. Any suggestions on the lotion I should use for the rest of the rash? Any info would be appreciated.

I would love to hear some Erbitux success stories also.

Edit: Just had a PET scan and it was clean except for my liver.

[boxhill]

have you talked about the possibility of the HAI pump?

[camicom]

The closest one is a 5 hour drive. The prospect of doing that every 3 weeks is daunting.

[GrouseMan]

The Erbitux rash is quite the irritant, and happens with all EGFr inhibitors, MABS as well as small molecule drugs in that class. I was involved in developing this class of anticancer drugs off and on for some time in the late 80's through the 90's. The first such drug was called Canertinib (CI-1033) developed by Parke-Davis (PD) Research and development and was dropped in 2015 by Pfizer after they had taken over Warner Lambert the parent company to PD. By that time we had promoted at least two other better lead compounds. The last being Dacomitinib, sold under the brand name Vizimpro which Pfizer let set on the shelf for quite a while. At any rate when we were first doing clinical trials on CI-1033 we were testing EGFr inhibitors on all types of cancers. One of the better successes was someone with Squamous cell carcinoma of the skin on her face (cheek and nose). The EGFr inhibitpr worked very well to control the cancer but the rash made it as you are finding a rather irritating side effect. From what I remember at the time they also dosed her with Benadryl which eased the rash quite a bit. I think Benadryl cream might help a great deal. Today dermatologist usually prescribe an antibiotic which helps. My wife was put on cephalexin 500 mg once daily which helped while she was on Erbitux with Avastin and 5 FU. As a side effect, her thinning gray hair started to come back in thicker and darker. As far as your liver is concerned the HAI pump they implant it feeds tumors more directly in the Liver. Some have had great success with it. The best place to have that done is at MSKCC. Chemo really knocked down my wife's Liver and Spleen Mets. The one on her spleen completely disappeared and the ons on her liver calcified, which her oncologist though they were dead. But the cancer unknowingly had spread to her peritoneal cavity and that isn't well vascularized and makes it difficult to treat, as well as even visualize tumors. These are what probably are responsible for her death.

Good luck to you. EGFr inhibitors sometime work very well until the tumor builds up a resistance to them. However I have read that if you switch off it for a while then come back to it the tumors become sensitive to it again. I been following the research around these inhibitors for years now since I once worked on them. This class in combination with other drugs might one day prove to be better than they appear to be at the present. My personal opinion is the best way to proceed to treat cancer via chemotherapy is through multiple combinations, and also never give a tumor a break.

GrouseMan

[camicom]

The Erbitux rash is quite the irritant, and happens with all EGFr inhibitors, MABS as well as small molecule drugs in that class. I was involved in developing this class of anticancer drugs off and on for some time in the late 80's through the 90's. The first such drug was called Canertinib (CI-1033) developed by Parke-Davis (PD) Research and development and was dropped in 2015 by Pfizer after they had taken over Warner Lambert the parent company to PD. By that time we had promoted at least two other better lead compounds. The last being Dacomitinib, sold under the brand name Vizimpro which Pfizer let set on the shelf for quite a while. At any rate when we were first doing clinical trials on CI-1033 we were testing EGFr inhibitors on all types of cancers. One of the better successes was someone with Squamous cell carcinoma of the skin on her face (cheek and nose). The EGFr inhibitpr worked very well to control the cancer but the rash made it as you are finding a rather irritating side effect. From what I remember at the time they also dosed her with Benadryl which eased the rash quite a bit. I think Benadryl cream might help a great deal. Today dermatologist usually prescribe an antibiotic which helps. My wife was put on cephalexin 500 mg once daily which helped while she was on Erbitux with Avastin and 5 FU. As a side effect, her thinning gray hair started to come back in thicker and darker. As far as your liver is concerned the HAI pump they implant it feeds tumors more directly in the Liver. Some have had great success with it. The best place to have that done is at MSKCC. Chemo really knocked down my wife's Liver and Spleen Mets. The one on her spleen completely disappeared and the ons on her liver calcified, which her oncologist though they were dead. But the cancer unknowingly had spread to her peritoneal cavity and that isn't well vascularized and makes it difficult to treat, as well as even visualize tumors. These are what probably are responsible for her death.

Good luck to you. EGFr inhibitors sometime work very well until the tumor builds up a resistance to them. However I have read that if you switch off it for a while then come back to it the tumors become sensitive to it again. I been following the research around these inhibitors for years now since I once worked on them. This class in combination with other drugs might one day prove to be better than they appear to be at the present. My personal opinion is the best way to proceed to treat cancer via chemotherapy is through multiple combinations, and also never give a tumor a break.

GrouseMan

Thanks so much for the info. I am very sorry for the loss of your wife.

[boxhill]

Camicom, perhaps

Ginabeewell

will look in and comment on this for you. (I think that's the right way to draw it to her attention? If not, I suggest you look up her thread(s) if you haven't already.

I don't know where you are located, but sometimes people are able to get the pump refilled more locally, rather than trekking off to MSK or City of Hope or wherever every few weeks.

[ginabeewell]

Camicom, perhaps

Ginabeewell

will look in and comment on this for you. (I think that's the right way to draw it to her attention? If not, I suggest you look up her thread(s) if you haven't already.

I don't know where you are located, but sometimes people are able to get the pump refilled more locally, rather than trekking off to MSK or City of Hope or wherever every few weeks.

Thanks Boxhill!

Here is the post I wrote about the maybe-trick I used for my Vectibix rash. I’m not sure it works but worth a shot!

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=64863&p=505093&hilit=Vectibix+Rash#p505093