Stronger immune system after Herceptin?

moonchild64

Curious to see if there are other bc sisters that have been healthier since Herceptin therapy?

I finished one year of Herceptin in June 2009 and have not had a cold, or the flu or really any sickness since completion of treatment.  Friends and family have all had one thing or another - H1N1, stomach bugs, colds, regular flu, etc., but I have not.

After being down and out for a week with the flu, my daughter said to me 'Mom, you never get sick anymore!'  Thought about it and realized that she was right.  After a little research, discovered that Herceptin works with our own natural immune system to fight the HER2 cancer when we are in active treatment.

http://www.herceptin.net/portal/eipf/pb/herceptin/trastuzumab/about_herceptin

Perhaps the drug therapy provides a boost to our immune system and longer term benefits for our overall health? 

Wouldn't that be a nice bonus

KristyAnn

I finished herceptin in April 2009 and I havent been sick either other than one sinus infection (after a bad allergy attack)- I think between the treatments and some dietary changes I made that my immune system is better now also.

Kristy

mrsloghouse

I had herceptin 4 1/2 years ago and noticed that > My immune system is still pretty good hurrah but I do get the odd cold etc now ! I developed really terrible cystitis towrds the end of the treatment which went after about 6 months i don't know if anyone else suffered that it was very grim !

Brenda_R

I was sick after I got my flu shot and pneumonia shot at the same time. Reaction?

I've had some stomach, gallbladder problems, but sick with a cold or flu, no.

I am much more vigilant in not going where lots of people are if I can help it, and washing my hands a lot more, though.  I'm afraid to get sick because I don't feel like I would make it if I did. 

Dennis

I was wondering about my wife as well.

This fall winter season, I was sick 2 to 3 times.  My son was sick 4 to 5 times.

She had a small cough for 2 days when 2 other teachers in her school came down

with the H1N1 flu.     We took the H1N1 flu shots 3 weeks later.

But family doctor told us we should take seasonal flu as well because of her weaken

immune system.   

KathyL

OK, hate to burst the bubble here, but I think you are all just lucky!     I had chemo+ herceptin for a year, ended last Dec.  I SWEAR I am worse than before it all.  I even questioned my onc about whether my immune system works anymore (he laughed and said yes).. I catch everything that comes along including H1N1 despite being immunized.  I am a nurse and I have 2 small kids (age 4 and 7), so it could just be that I'm exposed to more, but the only thing that has changed was that I had chemo and herceptin... otherwise my job is the same and my kids are the same.  But I am sick all the time now!  So, I have to say my immune system is definitely NOT stronger now

TammyLou

My immune system is not good.  WBC is in the ditches and has been for the 4 years following cancer treatment.

I am the crazy hand-washing lady...and that has reduced my exposure to typical cold & flu, etc.

I should buy stock in wet ones.

tl

susang123

I'm in Month 4 of 12 in Herceptin Treatments.  Doing well - feel the best I have in years BUT I've also changed my diet, am taking my vitamins regularly now, and exercising, so combo of all is probably why I feel so good!   I opted out of chemo plus Herceptin.  Only Herceptin......notice my bones ache after infusion, but nothing that a tylenol or motrin won't take care of, in fact, taken before an infusion works better.

chainsawz

I am not sure it was the herceptin, but I did seem to feel better right after having surgery and chemo (with herceptin).  My onc said it could be was less cancer in my body taking up all my resources?  Now that I have been on it since 09/08, it seems to be causing my immunities to nosedive a little and is messing with my joints and muscles.   I think everyone's body reacts differently to this stuff :>

Gayleebug

My immune system seems to be real good, perhaps even better, after finishing Herceptin last August.  Have had a sinus infection (but had those before I got cancer) and that is it ... knock on wood.  Nothing else while my folks at work have been dropping like flies.  And my friends at my after-work hangout have been through all the mid-level crap going around lately.  I have no idea ....

Gayleebug

I need to amend my post above.  Just got my bloodwork & it shows my lymphocytes (white blood cells) are low, which could indicate a weakened immune system.  So, now I REALLY have no idea. 

KorynH

I didn't find that to be the case. I had 11 MRSA infections in the past 8 months and new allergies I never had before. Probably, because Taxotere and Carboplatin confused my immune system and being in the hospital every week for 20 weeks then every 3 weeks for the remaining 7 months exposed my wekened immune system to MRSA which is all over the hospital and difficult to rid your body of once you contract it.  I am now being followed not only by oncology and breast surgeon but allergist and infectious disease doctors as well.  Sorry mine wasn't as poisitive an experience. I see my doctor tomorrow so I am going to ask this question because it made me very curious!

Gabrielle

I think I found this to be true. 

I think my hearing and sinus were worsened by the chemo (and I think Adrai/cyto/tax is the culprit here based on no scientific evidence whatsoever) -- but since all the chemo was finished, including the 52 weeks of herceptin, I think my overall health and immune sysem "feels" stronger. 

weety

Did the herceptin seem to affect (lower) your white blood cells while you were still on it  (after chemo, but still on the herceptin only treatments) or did they steady out once chemo was over?

ski2

This is an interesting question. I wonder if doctors know what happens to the immune system after taking herceptin for so long.

I always had allergies but they are now much more severe than before and in different ways. I am used to getting a certain kind of allergic reaction, but now my body overreacts to the things that always bothered me, but in different way (My eyes itch like mad but never did before, I cough when I used to sneeze, tree pollen gets me but not ragweed etc). Herceptin is designed to make your body overreact. So the connection may not be far fetched.

lovemygarden

While I was on the Taxol/Herceptin combo, my childhood allergy to wheat (result: severe eczema rash) came back after 40+ years of being gone, right after I had infusion #4.   So I put myself on a wheat gluten-free diet and have been fine since then. I've been done with the Taxol for 2 months now but am going to wait another month before trying to eat something containing wheat, as an experiment. If the reaction occurs again, I'll assume it's the Herceptin causing it (not the Taxol, which only takes 2 weeks to "wash out") and won't try wheat again until I'm 6 months past my final dose of Herceptin. It will be an interesting experiment!

BonoboGirrl

I'm curious, anyone experiencing ear issues such as infections, eustachian tube dysfunction (ETD), tinnitus, allergies, or other odd symptoms involving sinus, neck, throat after Herceptin? 

Slainte

I am just finishing my year of herceptin. I have constant sinus issues, sore throat and runny nose. Also my ears feel "plugged" like when you fly or have allergies all the time as well. Also notice very mild tinnitus off and on. Still hoping it will all go away when I finish herceptin.



Christine

kathleen1966

My immune system is also not stronger but much worse. I never, ever, EVER, never and one more never got sick before cancer.  Seriously, never.  Maybe once in my 15 year marriage. no stomache bugs that the rest of the house got, no fevers, not one flu, cold, etc.....After chemo and Herceptin I have been nothing but constantly sick.  And not while ON chemo or herceptin (one tiny illness that needed antiobiotics but that's it).  I have picked up every virus that is at my childrens school.  For the first time in my LIFE, I was coughing up thick green gunk and needed an antiobiotic. I had a reaction to this antibiotic that made my heart race, severe diarrhea with the second antibiotic they gave me and I also have horrible allergies that I never had before. I believe my immune system is compromised due to my having lymphedema and nodes being taken out. What this will due in terms of me needing to have a good immune system to battle any stray cancer cells is worrisome.

BonoboGirrl

Christine, 

 I have had the plugged ear feeling since I ended Herceptin. In fact, it started 4 days after my brain MRI. Not sure if there's any correlation to the MRI, Herceptin, or if it's just a random occurance. However, I did have a cough the entire time I was taking Herceptin. That cleared right around the time my ears went wonky.Online I've only come across 6 women reporting ETD while taking Herceptin, which is too insignificant a number to argue a possible correlation. However, since Herceptin can affect the ciliated epithelial cells of the lungs, and the Eustachian tubes are lined with same cells, I wonder if there might indeed be a connection.

How are your ears feeling this month? Any better? I also had intermittent tinnitus at the beginning. I very rarely get a ringing now, and when I do it's ever so brief. But the fullness, with crackling, sticky sensation is always there. Have you had any neck pain while on Herceptin? 

BonoboGirrl

Kathleen, 

I'm like you. Never sick before, only taken antibiotics a couple times in the past 20 years, and too, only a couple times when I was a kid. And I picked up nothing in the 5 years previous to cancer, and never got sick while undergoing chemo (and I had a daughter starting public school, plus I work at a public high school with over 3000 students!). It wasn't until finishing--actually, as noted above, a month after finishing Herceptin that everything went haywire. My quality of life is diminished now, not when I was in treatment. How uncanny, not to mention frustrating!

moonchild64

It has now been 6 + years since my original post on this topic. My immune system is stronger than ever. All around me at work (very large company, open cube environment) are people coughing, sneezing, out with the flu, bronchitis, etc., and other than an occasional sinus headache in the morning (lovely spring weather in Ohio), I have not been sick in seven years since my year-long Herceptin treatment.

Prior to my bc diagnosis, I used to have at least one bout with bronchitis each year - usually end of winter. I had pneumonia in 2000 and it seemed inevitably a chest cold would progress to bronchitis and I'd be out sick for a week or more. This has not happened once since Herceptin.

I do feel it helps that I live alone and am not around children aka germ incubators.

Hope all my BC and Herceptin sisters are doing well. I am 8 years clear at the end of this month

Michelle

Bliss58

Hi Michelle,

Awesome that you've posted to this thread again and nice to hear that you've done so well. I hope it's true that Herceptin has lasting immuno benefit. I have three treatments left and my year will be finished July 1. I went all through the winter and never caught a cold, but then spring comes and i got not one, but two, back to back! First one hung on for three weeks, but it was a crud that everyone was getting, lasting that long, and finally got me. Second one I got from my BIL I think, but it lasted only a few days. Before BC dx, I would usually catch a cold in the spring, so nothing new.

cnanthia

Michelle: I've been on Herceptin for 9 1/2 years and it recently occurred to me, too, that (hate to say it out loud) I never seem to get sick anymore.

It seems that when I start to feel I may be getting something, I sleep a lot for a day, and then I seem to be fine again.

We are incredibly fortunate.