echocardiogram to monitor heart while on Herceptin

I am on Herceptin till December...I get an echo every 3 months to monitor my heart. I had a heart scan before chemo and during as well which is also because I had Epirubicin. That and Adriamycin can do damage to the heart.

Hi--

I had MUGA scans while on Herceptin.  I had to stop Herceptin after my second MUGA Scan as my ejection rate dropped LOW. Now it's wait and see if my heart rebounds in order to continue Herceptin.

Heather 

Had a baseline MUGA,before any chemo,then while on herceptin every three months.

I hade echo every three months and then once txt was over-6 months out. My 6 mo out echo is for next week, so not sure going forward, but if I recall, I think this is the last one unless they see something.

I am on AC Chemo.  My 4th and final is on the 23rd.  After that my treatment plan is taxol/herceptin.  I've made it by the hardest on the AC.  The more I research about taxol/herceptin the more i am concerned about having heart trouble.  I know I will have a MUGA Scan before starting and suppose to be monitored while on it.  Any one have problems while on it.  I seem to get all the side effects of these drugs.

Kim I seem to get all the more rare SE but so far no problem on Herceptin… although I only had the baseline MUGA. I did read somewhere that if there was an issue with Herceptin it usually happens at the beginning. Once you've had several treatments without incidence you're typically out of the woods… but with Adriamycin it can be an entirely different story.

Of course Herceptin hasn't been around as long as Adriamycin. There could be some long term risk just like Adriamycin that we don't know about yet.

Hi GIrls!  I had a MUGA scan before I started chemo (AC) and my EF was 71%.  After the AC and one round of herceptin (plus taxol) the EF went down to 50%.  They did an echo to confirm the result and waited 3 extra weeks before my next dose of herceptin, but my onc thought the benefit of herceptin outweighed the risks of cardiac problems since I had no symptoms.  I finished the herceptin in January this year, and my EF was again down to 50% after going up to 58% for awhile (I had echos every 3 months).  I had no symptoms until this week when I had my first episode of shortness of breath while hiking.  It was really scary, but haven't had any more symptoms since then.  Still have peripheral neuropathy from the taxol, which comes and goes.  Mostly it's okay but I hate taking the gabapentin which makes me dopey so I try to tough it out.

By the way, the general rule on heart function is if the EF goes down by more than 16% they are supposed to stop the herceptin.  Since I am Grade 3 my onc wants to be aggressive with my treatment.

I had my last Herceptin a week ago (took a year). I had a baseline scan prior ro commencing Herceptin and it was in the low 60s. I then had 2 more at 3 monthly intervals which were both in the low 50s. After that I had no more but at each visit the onc asked about any breathlessness and he checked my heart with a stethoscope. I exercised daily and could tell that there was no change.

Have had three echoes so far on herceptin.  The first, my ejection fraction was 55, the second my ejection fraction was 45 (this was about 7 months later, continued with Herceptin and have had three treaments since this echo).  Just had another one. I will hear what my ejection fraction is on the 24th of June!