Herceptin + Navelbine for bone mets

Hi Shafali,

 I did herceptin and navelbine for a chest wall reccurance. My onc said the navelbine potentiates the herceptin and that was why she used that combo.

 The treatments were 2 weeks on and 1 week off. I did navelbine + herceptin  for 6 months and then herceptin alone for an addition 6 months.

My only big concession was I had to have a PICC line for the navelbine because it can cause severe arm pain if given by a peripheral IV. The navelbine was easily tolerated, no real side effects at all. My WBC would drop and I had to give myself a neupogen injection on the off week to insure I stayed on track. All things considered I found radiation to be more difficult to tolerate.

Let me know if you have any other questions,

Bev 

Hi Shafali,

 My treatment was proactive so there was noting to scan. My reccurance was  on the skins surface, removed surgically and we got clean margins.

I had my MUGA scans every three months and that was it. I finished navelbine in February and herceptin in August.

If your onc will let you do the injections yourself it really is easy and I had very few side effects (achey joints for 24 hrs but not bad). The needle is the same size as an insulin needle (very, very thin) and all I had to do was aim for the fat on my hips...plenty of target area!

Hugs,

Bev 

Yes it is only to test the ejection fraction (EF) of the left ventricle. Like I said when I did the navelbine + herceptin combo it was proactive. My scans were all clear after the recurrance was managed.