Taxol, Herceptin and Perjeta treatment

mom2LA

Hi everyone,

This is my first post, but I've been reading a long since I was diagnosed back on January 2018.

I felt a lump on my breast and the MRI confirmed it's cancer. At the beginning I was diagnosed stage 2B, and while waiting for schedule to have biopsy and to see my oncology and surgeon, I felt a lump on my armpit. They staged me as stage 3C. In January 2018, I started the TCHP chemo for 6 rounds. I had a minimal side effects. Mostly fatigue, completely hair loss, and taste change. I had double mastectomy in July 2018 and radiation on October 2018, and re-construction on March 2019. After all of these treatments, I had a PET scan, and it showed up 2 small spots (1 above my collarbone and 1 under the breast bone). The Oncologist was hoping these spots were from the chemo and the radiation. He said since they're small in size, we'll monitor them. I had CT scan every 4 months to monitor and I had 2 scans so far. It's been a year and recently, they sent me to have PET scan again, and the spots are getting bigger, and there's also a new one (under the breastbone) lit up in the PET scan. So total 3 spots (2 old one and 1 new). They're certainly these spots are cancer. The Oncology suggested me to have the weekly Taxol and Herceptin and Perjeta. I really don't want to go thru this again and losing my hair again (losing my hair is the most thing that depress me). I'll have a biopsy of the lump above my collarbone the end of this month and will start chemo in early July.

Did anyone of you have the same chemo? Did you lose all of your hair on the weekly Taxol?

ElaineTherese

Hi!

I'm sorry you have to do chemo again. That sux. Yes, I had THP, though I had it after Adriamycin + Cytoxan so I was already bald when I did it. Yes, you will lose your hair with weekly Taxol. Have you ever thought about cold-capping? It's supposed to work better with the taxanes than AC.

THP did produce taste changes, fatigue, and diarrhea in my case. But, it was gentler than AC, and I worked full-time while doing THP. One of the major concerns about Taxol is that it can produce neuropathy in your hands and feet. I got a little neuropathy in my fingertips, but otherwise didn't have a problem with it. Good luck!

Moderators

Hi mom2LA and thank you for posting!

We're also so sorry you have to go through this again -- but we're glad you have a plan in place.

As ElaineTherese mentioned, cold caps may be a good option for you to keep your hair. You can read more on them on the main Breastcancer.org site's page on Cold Caps and Scalp Cooling Systems, this Podcast called All About Cold Caps and also this thread: Cold Caps Users Past and Present to Save Hair.

We hope this helps and we look forward to hearing more from you soon, and supporting you through you're treatment!

--The Mods