Ibrance Questions/Info

Livelong67

I was initially diagnosed in 2001 and had lumpectomy, chemo and radiation lymph node negative. In 2005 had recurrence in same breast and had mastectomy and five years Zoladex. Late 2015 I noticed a mass on my sternum and in Feb 2016 diagnosed with metastasis in nodes around sternum and a suspect nodule on my lung. Biopsy on sterum showed 99% ER+. Started Femara and next scan showed new spots on my lung so started Ibrance along with the Femara. Ultimately had to drop to the 75 MG dose due to low white blood counts.

Had been stable (no better/no worse) and then a couple of things happened. I was getting acid reflux and doc prescribed Prilosec. Read somewhere that at a conference, it was mentioned that these acid reducers can interfere with absorption of Ibrance by as much as 40%. Cannot find the article since. Also around same time in January of this year due to change of health plan and pharmacy, I learned that Ibrance is supposed to be taken with food. I had been taking at bedtime.

Scan in April showed a reduction in one of the lung spots and a couple went away. Now CA27-29 has been up and down between 36 and 39 and this month jumped to 43. Had new scan today and see doc on Monday. Had some questions:

Did anyone else know that Ibrance is supposed to be taken with food?

I thought I understood that Ibrance trials were only with Femara, yet I see that some on this forum are on Ibrance with other AIs. Anyone on something other than Femara with the Ibrance and was there a study?

I'm praying that my scan results show stable or regression and that the tumor markers are not an indicator that something is wrong. If that is not the case, has anyone been on that protocol and it stopped working and then what was your next treatment?

Anyone been on the Ibrance/Femara protocol longer than me (16 months) with success?

Blessings and love to you all.

Moderators

Hi Livelong-

Welcome to BCO! We hope you find this community to be a source of support and information as you continue down this road. Have you read through our thread on Ibrance? It's long and very active, and full of info and other members who might have some insight for you on the issues you mentioned: https://community.breastcancer.org/forum/8/topics/...

The Mods

Livelong67

Thank you for the link. I will check it out.