Herceptin

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joyyee1
joyyee1 Member Posts: 31
edited March 2014 in Breast Cancer #1
I have completed 6 TCH treatments and now will begin Herceptin treatments for the next 8 months.
I"m eager to know what side effects I'll have with the Herceptin alone. I'm hoping for very mild side effects.

Anyone have experiences to share?
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Comments

  • Kat11
    Kat11 Member Posts: 1,931 Member
    #2
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    Hi Joyyee
    I am having my last herceptin treatment in 2 weeks. I have had no side affect with herceptin. I am having my last treatment in 2 weeks and have had no problems. I did have to have echo's every couple months through out my treatment, they do watch the heart. Other than the lenth of the treatment it was real easy for me. Nothing like chemo. Good luck.
  • lizziejane
    lizziejane Member Posts: 69
    #3
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    HERCEPTIN
    I HAVE TWO MORE HERCEPTIN TREATMENTS TO GO, SO FAR, THEY HAVE NOT AFFECTED ME AT ALL, I HOPE THE SAME IS TRUE FOR YOU....NOW, IF ONLY I COULD SAY THE SAME ABOUT THE BLASTED LITTLE FEMARA PILL......
  • BlownAway60
    BlownAway60 Member Posts: 851
    #4
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    Yeah. Glad you are done with
    Yeah. Glad you are done with chemo. I will finish my Herceptin in Nov of this year. I haven't noticed any major side effects. One of the major side effects of Herceptin is Heart problems. My onc is having me do MUGA scans about every 3 months to make sure I have no decrese in my heart function. So far everything has been good.

    Hugs

    Donna
  • joyyee1
    joyyee1 Member Posts: 31
    #5
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    Kat11 said:

    Hi Joyyee
    I am having my last herceptin treatment in 2 weeks. I have had no side affect with herceptin. I am having my last treatment in 2 weeks and have had no problems. I did have to have echo's every couple months through out my treatment, they do watch the heart. Other than the lenth of the treatment it was real easy for me. Nothing like chemo. Good luck.

    Herceptin
    Thanks for the reply! I"ll be having echos too along the way ..... Good news to hear there were no side effects!!!

    Good luck to you!!
  • joyyee1
    joyyee1 Member Posts: 31
    #6
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    lizziejane said:

    HERCEPTIN
    I HAVE TWO MORE HERCEPTIN TREATMENTS TO GO, SO FAR, THEY HAVE NOT AFFECTED ME AT ALL, I HOPE THE SAME IS TRUE FOR YOU....NOW, IF ONLY I COULD SAY THE SAME ABOUT THE BLASTED LITTLE FEMARA PILL......

    Herceptin

    Good to hear!! My oncologist has mentioned a pill I"d take for 5 years.. don't know when I start that.. OR the name of it.
    So I take it you have side effects with Femara??
  • joyyee1
    joyyee1 Member Posts: 31
    #7
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    BlownAway60 said:

    Yeah. Glad you are done with
    Yeah. Glad you are done with chemo. I will finish my Herceptin in Nov of this year. I haven't noticed any major side effects. One of the major side effects of Herceptin is Heart problems. My onc is having me do MUGA scans about every 3 months to make sure I have no decrese in my heart function. So far everything has been good.

    Hugs

    Donna

    Herceptin

    Glad you are almost done AND no major side effects with the Herceptin!! I"ll be having echos too along the way ! Can't wait for my hair to grow back!

    How soon did yours grow back?
  • Kat11
    Kat11 Member Posts: 1,931 Member
    #8
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    joyyee1 said:

    Herceptin

    Glad you are almost done AND no major side effects with the Herceptin!! I"ll be having echos too along the way ! Can't wait for my hair to grow back!

    How soon did yours grow back?

    I am on Tamoxifen, It's a
    I am on Tamoxifen, It's a mean little pill that is causing me hot flashes.
  • BlownAway60
    BlownAway60 Member Posts: 851
    #9
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    joyyee1 said:

    Herceptin

    Glad you are almost done AND no major side effects with the Herceptin!! I"ll be having echos too along the way ! Can't wait for my hair to grow back!

    How soon did yours grow back?

    I finished Chemo on Feb 26
    I finished Chemo on Feb 26 and this pic is about a month old.

    Hugs

    Donna
  • tommaseena
    tommaseena Member Posts: 1,769
    #10
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    BlownAway60 said:

    I finished Chemo on Feb 26
    I finished Chemo on Feb 26 and this pic is about a month old.

    Hugs

    Donna

    Herceptin
    I just finished Herceptin in July--no side effects except it may cause your ejection fraction to go down and then they will have you take a vacation from it and then start again. That is what happened to me. They have monitored my heart every 3 months and when the EF goes down I took a four wk break and then another echo to see where the EF was and if back up then it was a go for Herceptin again.

    Hugs, Margo
  • Jean 0609
    Jean 0609 Member Posts: 2,462
    #11
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    tommaseena said:

    Herceptin
    I just finished Herceptin in July--no side effects except it may cause your ejection fraction to go down and then they will have you take a vacation from it and then start again. That is what happened to me. They have monitored my heart every 3 months and when the EF goes down I took a four wk break and then another echo to see where the EF was and if back up then it was a go for Herceptin again.

    Hugs, Margo

    Question Margo
    What is "ejection fraction"? I don't think I've heard that before.
  • upnorthlive57
    upnorthlive57 Member Posts: 41
    #12
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    joyyeel
    Hi Joyyeel,
    I am on Herceptin for the next 6 months every 3 weeks. I have had one serious side effect , I ended up in the ER. My problem was holding water, I ended up getting Lasix shots 3 days. I am now on lasix pills one a day which then screws up my potassium blah blah blah. But in the long run I am willing to try anything to get rid of the beast!!!
  • Cat64
    Cat64 Member Posts: 1,192
    #13
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    Joy
    Congrats on completing Chemo! I have one more Herceptin tx to do (Yay) and so far I have not had any problems with it. (That I know of) It's hard to tell which drug causes what! In the beginning, I had to have Benadryl with my dose because I broke out in hives. My EF has actually went up since I started, don't know why, but it's better than down. I have an Echo or Muga done every 3 months while on it. Praying the rest go well for you!
    ♥ Cat
  • smalldoggroomer
    smalldoggroomer Member Posts: 1,184
    #14
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    tommaseena said:

    Herceptin
    I just finished Herceptin in July--no side effects except it may cause your ejection fraction to go down and then they will have you take a vacation from it and then start again. That is what happened to me. They have monitored my heart every 3 months and when the EF goes down I took a four wk break and then another echo to see where the EF was and if back up then it was a go for Herceptin again.

    Hugs, Margo

    Hey Margo
    I am taking herceptin with my chemo and then have to take it for a year also. My EF dropped from 68 to 65 in the first three treatments is that normal. What did yours drop to that made treatment stop. And what did it come back up to? If you don't mind me asking Kay
  • joyyee1
    joyyee1 Member Posts: 31
    #15
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    upnorthlive57 said:

    joyyeel
    Hi Joyyeel,
    I am on Herceptin for the next 6 months every 3 weeks. I have had one serious side effect , I ended up in the ER. My problem was holding water, I ended up getting Lasix shots 3 days. I am now on lasix pills one a day which then screws up my potassium blah blah blah. But in the long run I am willing to try anything to get rid of the beast!!!

    Herceptin
    I have trouble with edema already so I hope the drug doesn't make it worse! I have my first treatment today! It looks like you and I are on the same path! My treatments are until April!
    I need to call my cardiologist and talk him him about Lasix...
  • joyyee1
    joyyee1 Member Posts: 31
    #16
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    Jean 0609 said:

    Question Margo
    What is "ejection fraction"? I don't think I've heard that before.

    Ejection Fraction
    It's a number that shows how well your heart is pumping the blood. My dr. explained that chemo effects your muscles- and your heart is a muscle- an important one! My high blood pressure had caused my EF to be low- (45) so I'm on an additional blood pressure med. now which brought the EF up to 56. They won't give you chemo unless your EF is at least 50.
    Hope this explains it a bit!

    Funny thing about EF- I had NO symptoms at all. and felt the same when my number was 45 or 56!! Scary!!
  • knitterjan
    knitterjan Member Posts: 20
    #17
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    Cat64 said:

    Joy
    Congrats on completing Chemo! I have one more Herceptin tx to do (Yay) and so far I have not had any problems with it. (That I know of) It's hard to tell which drug causes what! In the beginning, I had to have Benadryl with my dose because I broke out in hives. My EF has actually went up since I started, don't know why, but it's better than down. I have an Echo or Muga done every 3 months while on it. Praying the rest go well for you!
    ♥ Cat

    Edema
    I'm going tomorrow for my second herceptin and Zometta infusion. Finished 18 weeks of Taxol, yeah. My hair is already starting to come back, but it's white and curly and about 1/4" long. (It used to be reddish brown and straight.) I'm interested in the water retention comments. My left ankle is swelling. Now I'll mention that to the nurses tomorrow, thanks.
  • meena1
    meena1 Member Posts: 1,003
    #18
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    knitterjan said:

    Edema
    I'm going tomorrow for my second herceptin and Zometta infusion. Finished 18 weeks of Taxol, yeah. My hair is already starting to come back, but it's white and curly and about 1/4" long. (It used to be reddish brown and straight.) I'm interested in the water retention comments. My left ankle is swelling. Now I'll mention that to the nurses tomorrow, thanks.

    I did not have any problems
    I did not have any problems with herceptin at all. Just make sure you have a muga scan or whatever your doc orders to check your heart.
  • tommaseena
    tommaseena Member Posts: 1,769
    #19
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    smalldoggroomer said:

    Hey Margo
    I am taking herceptin with my chemo and then have to take it for a year also. My EF dropped from 68 to 65 in the first three treatments is that normal. What did yours drop to that made treatment stop. And what did it come back up to? If you don't mind me asking Kay

    EF
    Kay,
    Dropping a few points is not bad. Mine dropped from 62 down to 46 one time. The other times it dropped from 59 to 49 and another time 56 to 49. Since I have been on the Herceptin for over a year and I have had now 4 times where my EF has dropped then they don't want to cause any waves with my heart. It is recommended by the studies that if a person has 3 significant drops in the EF then treatment should be stopped. They will monitor my heart in September and December by doing an echo an then if everything looks good then once every 6-12 months.

    Margo
  • upnorthlive57
    upnorthlive57 Member Posts: 41
    #20
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    knitterjan said:

    Edema
    I'm going tomorrow for my second herceptin and Zometta infusion. Finished 18 weeks of Taxol, yeah. My hair is already starting to come back, but it's white and curly and about 1/4" long. (It used to be reddish brown and straight.) I'm interested in the water retention comments. My left ankle is swelling. Now I'll mention that to the nurses tomorrow, thanks.

    water retention
    I had completed the taxol and the other adrimyicin and was just doing the herceptin. the swelling was likeover nite by sunday morning i thought my toes were going to pop off the tops of my feet were skin tight the first thing the er did was check my potassium and it was really low.. they gave me 4 orange pills and kept me on watch for about 5 hours. now that my potassium is up, ( after the horse pills twice a day ) I only do lasix in the a.m. and all was running smoothly until yesterday swelling again, headache, nausea aches all over. I called my onc and he said we are going to stop the treatments now, I had over 6 months worth he said it was enough. Had last rad yesterday, I am a survivor . I did what i thought was impossible and discovered that i am as strong as the women I look up to on this board....
  • Grandma X 6
    Grandma X 6 Member Posts: 135
    #21
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    Herceptin
    I have been on Herceptin for a year only one more to go. Other than getting a little achy no problems. Be sure they check your heart I have MUGA scans every 3-4 months.I'm sure you will be fine.My onc. nurse told me they are saying Herceptin is the new miracle cancer drug it has only been around for about 10 years we are lucky to have it. Good luck. Cindy

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