Herceptin Treatment

I completed my year of Herceptin a little over a year ago. I had a brief drop--from about 67 to about 52--in my LVEF midway through, but it resolved itself, and I seem to be fine now. I've heard the news too about shorter treatment regimens and wish I knew the answer. Good luck to you.

i  just finished 1 year of herceptin every 3 weeks and had cardiac spec scans every 3 months.  although it didn't work for me i had no cardiac damage at all, thank God. truthfully i know nothing about the 9 week program. good luck, maria

I also did fine on the 3 week schedule of herceptin for a year (muga results: 62, 60, 59, 59). I did do a different chemo (6FEC) that is less likely to cause heart damage in itself.

I did AC and taxol with herceptin for 12 weeks and finished the rest of the year without a problems.  I did go to a heart doctor when I started just so I had someone watching be who knew about heart problems.

Good Luck'

Debi

I am almost done with herceptin (next month, May 30th!!).  I started out as once a week and then I switched to once every three weeks.  I have had a few MUGAs and no drop in my heart, I take 300 mg. CoQ10.  But I have had palpitations, one day I was rushed to the hospital from work here because I was having a panic attack.  I came back from the gym and was thoroughly cooled down, but my heart started skipping and I panicked.  My ECHO was good though. 

I took Herceptin almost 4 years ago, when a weekly infusion for a year was standard. I went into it with a pre-existing heart arrthymia and having taken TAC X 6. My MUGA was low normal to begin with, and they watched me closely, especially my cardiologist (who prefers echos to MUGAs to assess the LV function). I stayed in the low normal range throughout the treatment year, although my arrthymia kicked up and required treatment for the first time with Toprol. All is well now, and I had another echo last month with LV in the high 50%.



My onc says that they don't really know if Adriamycin can cause "delayed" congestive heart failure, and he is concerned enough about the Herceptin to watch me closely. But the benefits of the Herceptin are so striking that it was worth the heart risk to me.



Hope M.

I am currently undergoing herceptin treatment  after having T & C with herceptin for 3 months.... I have 3 more months to go with herceptin only .My doctor initially stated one year , every 3rd week but he has since reduced that to 6 months every 3rd week,Haven't had but one MUGA????..

My mom is on Taxol and Herceptin weekly, she is stage IV so she will be on it indefintely.  Her Muga was 65% when she began Herceptin Oct 07, and she just had another one and it is still 65%.  From what I have read, A/C and Herceptin togther seem to contribute to the heart problems more than any other combo.  Luckily my mom did A/C 4 years back with her stage 1 dx, she has been fine on Taxol/Herceptin with the stage 4.