Need Help Fast - Weekly Herceptin

[Priscilla - OK]

Hello - I am receiving weekly Herceptin ONLY - no Chemo. I think it is helping. I believe my doctor plans three weeks on and one week off - I do not want to have that week off. Does anyone know if the week off is necessary when you are receiving Herceptin only.

[Jerri]

Priscilla,

I have been on weekly Herceptin since January of 2001. I have never had to take a week off. I have no idea why your doctor thinks this would be necessary. I have skipped one week each summer inorder to extend my vacation. I hope this helps.

Jerri

[Janelle]

I have been on herceptin weekly since June. I have no idea why your doctor would give you a week off. You might want to check with him/her to make sure that you understood it correctly and ask why it is necessary.
Hugs,
janelle

[JaneP]

When I take plan to take a week off, I take a double dose the week before. I have taken Herceptin since June 2002.

Good luck.
Jane

[Kitty]

Generally the week off is for the chemo portion and Herceptin alone is given on the 4th week.....

[Lisa]

Priscilla,
I, too, have never had a week off and don't know why you would. Have you had the opportunty to ask your onc about why you aren't also on chemo? Please ask him/her about this week off, too.

Love and light,

Lisa

[Lolly]

PJ,
I've been on Herceptin every three weeks since April 2002 and only skipped a week once when my port was acting up. When I was on weekly Herceptin, and ONLY after I was NED, my oncologist said I could skip a week if I needed to for a vacation, but I never did.
Why rock the boat?
Hugs,
Lolly

[Steph N.]

Priscilla -
First, I would like to know what you have that you need the herceptin for - a met someplace or just a prevention??
I took herceptin WITH weekly Taxol and Navelbene for my liver met. Now I am on every 3-week Herceptin and Zometa.(Had a complete response!)
The IMPORTANT thing to know is that when we get a 3-week dose it takes longer to infuse. The every week dose took less time. When I went on every 3 week dose there was something called a "loading dose" and the next infusion in 3 weeks has a "half life" of THREE weeks. So there is NO TIME between infusions that I am NOT PROTECTED.
If you have one week off - the important thing to find out is if that truly IS a week without protection of the Herceptin working in your body, OR if you get a 2-week dose (which would seem weird to me).
One more question. Do you have a heart condition that is giving your doc reservations about how you can tolerate this drug??

[Lyn]

Hi there, I have heard an entirely different version. I was on weekly, then 2 weekly and now triple every 3 weeks. The only reason they usually take you off is if an echocardiogram shows that the left ventricle in your heart is not functioning enough, or not working of course, I had 5 weeks between doses when I was in hospital for a thyroid problem which complicated into heart failure. Even after that my Left Ventricle was fine and I went back on it. I was told that the herceptin stays in your system for 5 to 6 weeks so I wasn't too worried. The other thing was that when I stopped the Navelbine I was having with it I started taking Aromasin, similar to Tamoxefin. I had complained of a lump in my neck since last June and that was when the thyroid problem was uncovered. My CA15-3 tumour marker was down to 7 the lowest it has ever been, my CT was normal, but the lump in my neck did not show up, but was biopsied under ultra sound, and it apparently has similar cancer cells that were in the original left side at the original site, so I am confused, my onc thinks it may be a different strain, but having radiation for the new outbreak, I hope I haven't alarmed you I have been doing this since 1998 and a regular visitor to this site, so you are not alone with this nightmare.

Hugs Lyn.

[eleanor]

Hope I'm not too late. But I was the same, received it weekly, no breaks. The week off was the chemo portion, but received herceptin.
el