Uh Oh! Side Effects

{JaNece editor} I was talking to my mom the other day and she said that my dad was getting a really bad rash on his face. It hurt to have his glasses on and his face was red. This is one of the side effects of the drug. And do you know something? He stopped coughing. He feels better and the rash is there because the treatment is working hard to stop that cancer. It is a good sign and we'll find out May 7th what the treatments are doing. Yeah for side effects! :) I was recently reading up on one of the drugs that Jack is on and found this about rashes:

"Rash occurs in the majority of patients. This resembles acne and primarily involves the face and neck. It is self-limited and resolves in the majority of cases, even with continued use. Interestingly, some clinical studies have indicated a correlation between the severity of the skin reactions and increased survival though this has not been quantatively assessed. The Journal of Clinical Oncology reported in 2004 that "cutaneous [skin] rash seems to be a surrogate marker of clinical benefit, but this finding should be confirmed in ongoing and future studies. The newsletter Lung Cancer Frontiers reported in its October 2003 issue, "Patients with moderate to severe cutaneous reactions [rashes] have a far better survival, than those with only mild reactions and much better than those with no cutaneous manifestations of drug effects."