TRIPLE POSITIVE GROUP

Trisha-Anne, sending you the very strongest good vibes.

I agree with you, ashla. Somehow, we find the strength.

Wish I had found this site a few weeks ago - but happy I did find it. I have my follow up appointment from surgery next Tuesday and also have an appointment to learn what the chemo plan will be. Getting anxious about working full time and supporting my two kids while going thru chemo.

Hi CyndiNic!

I worked through chemo, but I did meet with my department head to cut back a bit on some of my responsibilities so I wouldn't be too stressed. Let us know what your chemo plan is. Best wishes!

(((Hugs ))) To Trisha so sorry. we are all here for you.

Before my wife started her chemo treatments that included Herceptin like others she had a Muga scan to get a baseline on how her heart was performing. With her chemo being completed (6 rounds) and 1 Herceptin since her Dr. did schedule another heart check later this month. So since her first muga scan and her upcoming echo-cardiogram she will have had 8 Herceptin treatments and two scans of her heart. Her Herceptin treatments will take her into mid summer 2016 so I believe he wants to do two more between the one later this month and mid summer 2016.

This puts our mind at ease on several things... with her taking Herceptin and it being tough on her heart, then her being on estrogen blocker medication-- anything that will help us keep an eye on issues that may arise from all of the various treatments to me is a bonus

I also had heart scans done for ejection fraction, before my first herceptin / perjeta then after every third treatment which was about every 3 months. They infusions began with taxol and continued every 3 weeks for a year. My fraction dropped 5 points each scan and went from a baseline of 68 to 53. They would have stopped infusions if it dropped below 50. However with some exercise and prayer it went back up to 55 so I was able to finish treatment. God is good. Love, Jean

Absolutely need to have your heart checked. That is protocol

Trisha Ann that sucks. I am so sorry.

I asked my oncologist to continue on perjeta and since I had a complete response she said not to if I didn't have a complete response she would have presribed it. If she offered it I would continue as I believe more is better but she said I would be overdoing it

Well my path results have come in, and this new cancer is triple negative. er and pr 0% and Ki67 at 80%.

So I guess I'm just very special and will be part of both the triple positive and triple negative group.

I'll have surgery Thursday next week, and have a port put in at the same time.

Feeling just a bit shell shocked at the moment.

Trisha-Anne, I'm so sorry you have to do any of this again. Shell-shocked can't even begin to describe how you must feel. Sending big hugs your way.

So sorry Trisha-Anne that you have to go through this again. The same thing happened to me. I was almost 8 years out when I got diagnosed again. You will get through it again. Some things were easier because I knew what to expect and could prepare for it (ie constipation). Lots of different options the 2nd time around. Of course, this site was a God-send the 2nd time around. Didn't know about it in 2003. Wish I had!

TonLee I'd talk to my oncologist if I were you...I wouldn't use premarin anything at this point.  Especially since my MO wants me on the AI for at least another 5 years, I certainly wouldn't add estrogen products.

Trisha Ann Shell shocked indeed. Mind racing and numb at the same time. Peace and prayers for you and caregivers.

Just to confirm, we do have sex, and I use coconut oil, liberally, helps the pain and dryness.  Don't want to give too much info.   

Drug might help breast cancer patients avoid heart damage

By MARILYNN MARCHIONE
AP Chief Medical Writer

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) - Many cancer treatments have a dark side - they can damage the heart. New research suggests this risk might be lowered in women with breast tumors if they take a heart drug as a preventive measure during their cancer care.

If confirmed in wider testing, this could improve care for thousands of breast cancer patients in the U.S. alone each year, plus other women and some men who also get these treatments for other types of cancer.

As it stands now, cancer patients are referred to cardiologists after certain cancer drugs or radiation treatments have already weakened their hearts. Special clinics are springing up in hospitals to take care of the growing number of cancer survivors with this problem.

"If you wait until the disease has occurred, it may be too late" to do much good, said Dr. Javid Moslehi, who heads one such specialty clinic at Vanderbilt University. "We in the cardiology community have to do a better job of preventing cardiac disease rather than jumping in" after damage has occurred.

He had no role in the new study, which was done in Norway. Results were discussed Wednesday at an American Heart Association conference in Orlando.

Radiation treatments can harm arteries, making them prone to harden and clog and cause a heart attack. It also can cause valve or rhythm troubles. Certain cancer drugs, such as Herceptin and doxorubicin, sold as Adriamycin and other brands, can hurt the heart's ability to pump, and lead to heart failure.

"We give poison with a purpose," because it fights cancer, but heart problems can be "one of the dark sides of that," said Dr. Ann Partridge, a breast cancer specialist at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.

One of her patients, Christine Ells, 36, a teacher in the Boston suburb of Quincy, developed a heart rhythm problem from several drugs she was given to treat the breast cancer she was diagnosed with at age 27.

"The risks of these drugs are crazy," she said, but "it was more important to cure my cancer."

The new study aimed to prevent cardiac side effects. Led by Dr. Geeta Gulati of Akershus University Hospital in Lorenskog, Norway, it involved 120 women with early-stage breast cancer and tested two drugs long used to treat high blood pressure and heart failure - candesartan and metoprolol. The drugs are available as generics and cost less than a dollar a day.

Women were given one or both drugs or dummy pills, and their hearts' pumping capacity was assessed at various time points with MRI scans.

Heart damage worsened in the group on dummy pills. Metoprolol did not prevent heart decline but candesartan did, although the benefit was small - an improvement of 2 percent to 3 percent in pumping strength compared to the placebo group.

"The major issue is, the effect was very modest," so whether that prevents heart failure from developing down the road is not known, said Dr. Bonnie Ky, a cardio-oncology specialist at the University of Pennsylvania.

It's also not known whether things get better or worse over time, or whether a different drug in the same class would work better.

Still, it's a first.

As cancer patients are living longer, the risk of dying from heart problems actually exceeds that of cancer, so it's important to prevent damage, Ky said.

The University of South Florida has a federally funded study underway, testing drugs to prevent heart failure for women on Herceptin, that may help answer some questions.

Meanwhile, some doctors already are considering this tactic, especially in women taking drugs known to harm the heart or who already have some risk factors for heart problems.

"I get calls from the oncologists saying, 'she's at high risk, why don't we just start it?'" Dr. David Slosky, a cardiologist at Vanderbilt, said of preventive treatment.

"They're pretty benign," he said of the heart drugs the study tested. "The threshold, if somebody's got a high-risk cancer, will be pretty low" to use them preventively, he said.

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Online:

Heart advice for cancer patients: http://www.cardio-onc.org

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