Stage 4 Non-Small Cell with Interstitial Lung Disease

A dear friend of mine was diagnosed in the spring of 2007 with non-small cell lung cancer. . . she was doing well with treatments, until she was on Tarceva, which apparently left her with interstitial lung disease.  theyve changed her treatments a variety of times since, and recently her breathing has become increasingly shallow, and extremely weak.  In the past they noticed that she was not as affected by the interstitial lung disease while she was on steroids, but once they weaned her off steroids she had increasing breathing issues and had to go back on to oxygen for some time.  This week seems to be her worst yet, and theyve just taken her in to see what can be done.  Im afraid that the severe progression of the disease has started.....im just curious how long one can fight this off with two significant diseases to fight?  Is it common to be afflicted with both?  We just raised $50k towards lung cancer research in her honor and it breaks my heart that its not in time to save her.  Any info you may offer will be appreciated.

Thanks
-Amanda

[HeinrikMD]

Hi,

ILD is a potentially fatal disease. Like any other lung disease, the outcome will depend on the extent of damage. The condition is pretty rare (1% of cases receiving erlotinib) so it is pretty difficult to make estimates of survival (there is one case in which the patient survived 3 weeks after the condition deteriorated and this case occurred 2 weeks after discontinuing the drug).Among the known cases, there are patients who already have some ILD to begin with (a farmer). A similar drug called gefitinib has also some cases occurring in which the risk of death is increased if there was ILD to begin with, or if the patient was a smoker.  Estimates are best made by the doctor handling the case. Stay positive.