Lung Cancer: Symptoms & Screenings
Your doctor can prescribe several medications to treat lung cancer. These medications work on specific mutations in cancer cells to stop or slow the growth of lung cancer.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved erlotinib (brand name Tarceva), a pill that can be taken orally, for patients with locally advanced and metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) and as a maintenance therapy for patients with NSCLC that hasn’t grown or spread after the last four cycles of chemo. This drug blocks the EGFR and has been shown to work better than chemotherapy if the lung cancer has a mutation in the EGFR gene. Side effects include a rash that looks like acne and diarrhea.
The FDA approved afatinib dimaleate (Gilotrif) in 2013 to treat NSCLC. It works by stopping the uncontrolled cell growth caused by a mutation in the EGFR gene. Crizotinib (Xalkori) is a type of targeted therapy that’s been approved by the FDA for advanced NSCLC that has a mutation in the ALK gene. Ceritinib (Zykadia) is an additional targeted therapy for NSCLC with an ALK gene mutation. It’s been approved by the FDA for patients when their cancer worsens while they’re receiving crizotinib or if they can’t take crizotinib.
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