Alternative to Herceptin

Sorry no one responded. I don't think there is an alternative. We have a very similar diagnosis and I can tell you that my heart function did drop a bit during herceptin treatment and I was monitored very closely. Doctors would have stopped treatment if heart was in trouble. I will also share what my oncologist told me...After chemo, herceptin and surgery my chance of recurrence is 7-10% and without herceptin it would have been 30%. I didn't have any reason to not take the treatment and even though there can be serious side effect...benefit outweighed the risk.

What is your current treatment plan?

All the best

Kris 

Herceptin is pretty recent. There are some even newer drugs that have been used for metastatic BC, but I don't know if any have started testing for adjuvant use (assuming that you don't have mets). I don't know if any of the newer targeted drugs have been tested long enough to know what the heart risk.

One thing I've seen from some of the trials like BCIRG 006 is that the heart risk of Herceptin is much less when the chemo doesn't use anthracyclines. Anthracyclines like Adriamycin have there own heart risk and the impact of using Adrimycin followed by Herceptin had a lot more risk of heart problems (20 cases of CHF in 1000) than using either alone (4 cases of CHF in 1000).

Do you know what your LVEF is now? I don't think they will start Herceptin if it is less than 50%. Much of the benefit of Herceptin can be gotten by fairly brief use. In Europe, they often give it for 18 weeks instead of the year that is common in the US and the FinHer study showed that it was effective even when given for just 9 weeks. Perhaps that would reduce the risk for you.

For a tumor that is greater than 5 cm, I would not want to skip the Herceptin.  Perhaps your onc can order more frequent heart monitioring to ensure you are not loosing function.  At least this way you would get some Herceptin. 

Many women (most?) do not loose a significant amount of heart function, especially those on TCH.

I am on both Herceptin and Tykerb.  I get Herceptin through the IV every three weeks and I take the Tykerb in pill form each night. 

Although they are both Her2 blockers...Tykerb is not a pill form of Herceptin.  Tykerb is a different kind of drug than Herceptin, since it blocks the Her2 from inside the cell instead of the cell surface.  Tykerb also crosses the barrier surrounding the brain.....Herceptin does not. 

These drugs are very different and they do have different side effects.  I found that Herceptin has very few, if any, side effects; whereas with Tykerb there is a wide range of gastro/intestinal side effects.  With Tykerb my liver function needs to be watched closely.  With Herceptin, they monitor the heart function.

Until recently, Tykerb was for late stage breast cancer.  It is only recently that it is being prescribed to earlier stage cancers.

I would ask your oncologist about Tykerb....otherwise known as Lapatinib.

I read about loosing heart function.....I'm on my third treatment of Taxol and Herceptin with Benadryl and Decadron.....everytime and getting worse ....I have a tightness in my chest ....chest pains enough to call 911.

Went to hopital kept me 2 days ....went in my heart to see in what condition it is.

I have a 20% blockage in the top part of artery ....not even a stent put in.

Nobody where I am treated takes my complaint seriously ....thay say not a common side effect of Taxol never mind Herceptin.

They told me to relax and take deep breaths that I'm probably stressed.........

Doing my own research ......trying to find what to do if I can' take Herceptin with Taxol .

l

I have been on Herceptin for 6 months. My heart function dipped after the 7th dose and after each of the subsequent 3 doses, but by increasing the intervals between the subsequent doses, things returned completely to normal.I have an echo before each dose to confirm this. So even if you do have a reaction, its manageable.