Believe me, Mark, I've probably pulled up more links than you on Iressa. As for the side effects, not everybody gets them. I must be one of the lucky ones that gets to experience damn near all of them. Every time I go into the doctor with a new one, they seem excited because it somehow means the Iressa is working. I get the impression that the more side effects you have the better chance you have with Iressa. I'm not being dramatic to say I cried when they put me back on it again. After my surgery they found no signs of cancer cells, so I thought I was DONE with treatment and all the crap I had to deal with was behind me.

I'm assuming right now that I'm on the Iressa as some sort of preventative. There are times that I wonder if my doctors are more concerned with being part of this study or me as a patient, because my side effects have been horrible.

As for the deaths in Japan, these were lung cancer patients (I believe) and they died from lung problems.

Iressa is pretty easy to take though. One medium size yellow pill every morningm so it's not like getting chemo or radiation. In my case, I know after having Stage IV cancer and several nodes involved, they treated it agressively. WHen approached with Iressa, I was willing to grab anything and everything to give me a cure.

Guess that's why I'm still taking the drug.

Jen