Making the Decision to Have Targeted Therapy for Lung Cancer

Your doctor may suggest you have targeted therapy if you’ve had one or more courses of chemotherapy and it didn’t work. Some studies showed that the drugs worked better in people who:

• Had never smoked

• Quit smoking if they did smoke

• Were women

• Were Japanese

• Had bronchoalveolar carcinoma

Some of these drugs are only available in clinical trials. Right now, there are only two targeted drugs that have been FDA-approved for non-small cell lung cancer that has spread outside the lung. They are Iressa (gefitinib) and Tarceva (erlotinib). In December 2004, the FDA issued a statement saying that a large clinical trial showed that people who took Iressa did not live any longer than those who took a placebo. If you are taking it, you should talk with your doctor. The results of the study are being reviewed by the FDA. The drug is still on the market, but it is not being promoted by its maker AstraZeneca.