Tagrisso rash - what does it look like?

Hello @dragonspark,

I had the same reaction to 80 mg/day Tagrisso starting at about the same timeframe. In my case it did continue to spread to my back, chest, and face. It does present like a form of acne. Initially I was prescribed doxycycline (oral twice daily) along with a steroid cream and clindamycin gel. This helped a little but overall not much. My dose of Tagrisso was lowered to 40 mg and the condition improved after that however the acne persisted at a low annoying rate. A dermatology consult resulted in the doxycycline being replaced with cefadroxil and that was the miracle cure (I wished that was prescribed initially as it would have saved several months of dealing with this issue!). I recently tried to go back to 80 mg of Tagrisso but the acne came back after a week so the condition appears to dose related and my oncologist approved me going back down to 40 mg.

This skin reaction can be very distressing so I hope this helps!

@sglaza yes that was very helpful! I sent a picture of my face through the portal. It’s not horrible but annoying. Can I ask why they wanted to increase your dosage back to 80?

Reply to Dragonspark,
I was doing so well in regards to the response that cefadroxil gave to address the “acne” issue that my oncologist was hoping to see if I could tolerate the 80 mg dose along with the cefadroxil and keep the skin eruptions to a minimum however that wasn’t the case. The clinical studies conducted to date (to my knowledge) are only based on the 80 mg daily dose. They believe that the 40 mg dose will also be effective in controlling the cancer but there isn’t controlled data to prove that. Side note: I find it somewhat interesting that the 80 mg dose per day is the standard dose no matter what body weight you might have (for instance I’m 6’3” and 280 lbs).

My Doctor said to me that it would be ok for me to go on half dose of Tag - 40 instead of 80 due to side effects I was getting. She said especially since the 80 dose is given to an 280 lb person and I’m only half that weight.
I was loosing weight, getting leg cramps, headaches and blurry vision :(. I decided to try to tolerate the 80 dose as long as I could. When I first started Tag 7 months ago I started getting red blotches and a mild rash on my face. I used aquaphor and it cleared up in a few days. Hope your rash resolves.

@dragonspark, I've been taking 80mg of Tagrisso daily for almost 3 years. I've never had the skin rash problem, but I swear I chipped a nail while wearing gloves. In other words, nail splitting and chipping were very annoying and sometimes painful.

I started taking 5mg Biotin daily and have increased that to 10mg. Biotin is supposed to help skin, nails, and hair, so maybe it will help with your rash. My Oncologist assures me it doesn't interact with Tagrisso, Eliquis, or anything else I've been on. Plus, my hair has gotten stronger! I hope you find a solution.

My other initial side effects, such as diarrhea, died down and then disappeared altogether after 4-6 months.

Agree with standard dose of Tagrisso. I’m 5’1” and weigh 117. Taking 80mg. I guess it’s the cost and risks of a 40mg trial.