Hi Jennifer,

I am so sorry to hear about your Mom. Basically, Erbitux is a drug that was developed for colon cancer that has been found to have good reactions with head and neck cancers that have recurred or have not responded to other chemos. It was approved by the FDA in 2006 for use in head and neck cancers based on the success of the clinical trials that have been done. You can read a much better explanation of the drug on this website home page and by doing a search of the patient forum responses as Leslie has suggested. You can also send private emails to members of this forum by clicking on the icon to the right of the posting date to ask them specific questions about their experiences with Erbitux. There have been a lot of posts on this therapy that you will find by doing a search.

One of the things that I have found very hard to deal with is the uncertainty of this cancer. I'm an RN with 35 years of experience in home care and hospice, I've worked with cancer patients/caregivers for my entire career, and Jack's cancer makes me feel stupid on a daily basis.

As much as we know and are continuing to learn, no one can actually tell how any medication will act in every single case. There are just too many individual differences in all our cancers, our medical history, and our overall health status that interacts with treatments and affects the outcome. There are no guarantees on anything, just promising leads and a body of information that tells us how treatments work in most but not all circumstances.

We don't know why Erbitux works in some cases and not others but it's a great new option that has been added to the fight. The side effect that seems to be most common is skin rash and there are creams etc. to help deal with that.

It's worth a conversation with the oncologist to hear the rationale for or against Erbitux in your Mom's case. Then she can make an informed choice on what the next steps should be for her -based on how she truly feels and her specific prognosis. This is a difficult situation and we are here to help you with our experiences so you can go back to the medical team treating your Mom or make a decision to get another opinion.

Just remember, in the end it's about how your Mom feels and what she chooses to do and you try to deal with it all as a family.

Regards JoAnne