Probaby zeidin, but I was unable to find it, to read the goal of the trial and
what it's being compared against.  If it's randomized, there's no guarantee your
wife would get the Tarceva.

I'd want the Tarceva (or something similar) first and save (what I think) is
stronger chemo (and more potential side effects), if the Tarceva failed and the
tumor or tumors were growing and causing breathing (etc) problems.
But at that point, one could possibly have RT to address some of that.  So it's
hard to look into the future, as to the next step, and as I wrote, I don't know
what they're comparing to, in the Tarceva trial. Probably/definitely something
that hasn't been trialed (Phase III) before.

Sometimes I look at Phase I and II trial results (for the other) to get a
glimmer of whether it's worth trying (and what negatives there were, if any).
Then I consider the chance of _not_ getting the Tarceva and/or experiences of
other patients here, who've been in a trial for the same agent (one or the
other), but not knowing the compared agent, leaves me nowhere in comparison.
The stronger one probably shrinks tumours, tarceva claims to prevent the growth.

<http://www.cancerbackup.org.uk/Treatments/Biologicaltherapies/Cancergrowthinhibi
tors/Erlotinib>

So there's how I would approach the deciding process, if it were for me.

My apologies for writing "your mother:"

Steph's right. You should sit down with the oncologist and discuss each, as I've
explained above and make your decisions from there.

Thank you for answering my questions. I hope this process (we've been through
here) helps you in what questions to ask your wife's oncologist.

Please let us know how it's going and/or if you have other questions, I'll try
to help.
J