Other possibilities?

[eric]

Hi all,

My wife, Caryn, went to the eye dr for an annual exam and mentioned that she every so often sees shadows out of the corner of her eye. He said that it has nothing to do with her vision and that on her next set of scans (1 month) she should make sure to mention to the radiologist for him to check closely. I'm obviously nervous and can't think of what else it might be. Any one have any idea of possibilities other than mets?

Thank you,
Eric

[kk1]

I get ocular migraines check this link out and ask her if her visions symptom is anything like this.


http://www.eyeguys.net/ocularmigraine.html

kk1

[eric]

I will ask her. It gives me some comfort knowing that there might be other possibilites. Thank you!

[clisa]

Hello - look at the side effects of any medications your wife is on. Alot of them impact on vision. Up until recently I had perfect eyesight but now require glasses for anything up close and I have small black spots in my vision sometimes - turns out this is temprorary and when I go off this medication it will return to normal. So..... perhaps it could related to this.

Lisa

[karenann]

I also started getting ocular migraines after my Herceptin infusions. My symptoms were: one dilated pupil, blurry vision, pressure and eye ache. There are a lot of things it could be, try not to worry.

Karen

[Becky]

I get slightly blurry vision from the Herceptin (confirmed as a side effect and I had an eye exam and brain MRI to rule anything else out).


Secondly, when I was on Tamoxifen, oh boy.... when I was taking that drug, I thought I was going to go blind. I since got my ovaries removed and I am now on Arimidex. But while on Tamoxifen, I had floaters and such blurry vision. I was really scared about it.

You should still rule out anything else that may be more serious but it could just be a drug (or supplement) that she is on (or a combo of supplements and/or drugs. We sometimes forget that the supplements we take we are taking for some type of effect and should, therefore, also be considered a drug. How these interact with each other and with our prescribed medications should always be considered).

Best regards,

Becky

[mkrny]

My wife has been complaining about floaters for a couple of months and we dismissed it. She is on Herceptin plus other stuff and onco has not been ordering head scans so last few scans have had us thinking we're doing good.
Last Thursday we wnet to ER and got CT & MRI which revealed a tumor plus peripheral stuff that makes treatment more difficult and outcome less definite (as if anything with this stuff is definite).

Anyway I don't want to scare you but I would not be reading labels I would get the MRI scan w/ contrast ASAP. I wouldn't wait the week if you can get in sooner. That report will hopefully give you relief and then you can read labels to find the root of her eye business.

If you on taking Herceptin the body scan can look good, as in my wife's case, but the brain is not getting the benefit of the Herceptin so make sure you insist on head scans!!!

[jojo]

Hi all,

My wife, Caryn, went to the eye dr for an annual exam and mentioned that she every so often sees shadows out of the corner of her eye. He said that it has nothing to do with her vision and that on her next set of scans (1 month) she should make sure to mention to the radiologist for him to check closely. I'm obviously nervous and can't think of what else it might be. Any one have any idea of possibilities other than mets?

Thank you,
Eric

Hi Eric & Caryn,

Your eye doctor's words (in red) just raised a "red flag" in my opinion. Sounds like pretty dismissive, espeically when this patient has a history of cancer! How does HE know that it's got nothing to do with her cancer, even with the limited info that he already has??? I wouldn't be surprised, if he didn't do a double-check already! If I were in your shoes, I'd try to find a 2nd opinion.

Please keep us posted on Caryn's treatment plan. You both are in my thoughts & prayers. Go easy on yourselves. Caryn is very fortunate to have such a caring husband like you, Eric. :-) Bless you!

[Unregistered]

Omega three derivatives are at the heart of eyesight and its maintenance. They are repair and maintenance building blocks.

A recent book I read on macular degeneration highly recommends omega three, on the form of fish oil.

We are seeing on this site more and more area where herceptin appears to be impacting - the nose - the joints.

There is also some indication that there might be some communality in that omega threes might act on HER2 - see post below.

I know it is complicated, and not easy reading. The simple fact is this is new ground. How high omega threes will react with herceptin does not appear to be known, although it does act in synergy with other agents.

I cannot give you any easy answers. I can only suggest that if you have not looked at balancing your omega threes and sixes and consider adding oily fish and or fish oil to your diet you will find the subject thought provoking.


RB





1: J Nutr. 2005 May;135(5):983-8. Related Articles, Links
Click here to read
Dietary (n-3) polyunsaturated fatty acids inhibit HER-2/neu-induced breast cancer in mice independently of the PPARgamma ligand rosiglitazone.

Yee LD, Young DC, Rosol TJ, Vanbuskirk AM, Clinton SK.

Department of Surgery, Division of Surgical Oncology, The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA. yee.52@osu.edu

Overexpression of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER-2/neu) characterizes a molecular subtype of breast cancer associated with poor clinical outcome. Preventive strategies for HER-2/neu-positive breast cancer, which is often estrogen and progesterone receptor negative, remain undefined. Activators of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARgamma), a nuclear hormone receptor also expressed in breast cancer, hold potential as cancer prevention agents. PPARgamma ligands include specific fatty acids and synthetic compounds, such as the thiazolidinediones, which appear to inhibit cell proliferation and tumorigenesis. We hypothesized that a thiazolidinedione, rosiglitazone, may serve as a chemopreventive agent for HER-2/neu-associated mammary carcinogenesis, but that efficacy may be influenced by dietary fat content. We studied the effects of diets enriched with corn or fish oil (25% of energy) with and without rosiglitazone (12 g/kg) in a 2 x 2 factorial design on mammary tumorigenesis in murine mammary tumor virus (MMTV)-HER-2/neu transgenic mice. Despite in vitro evidence of antiproliferative effects in an MMTV-HER-2/neu tumor cell line, rosiglitazone did not affect mammary carcinogenesis in vivo. Interestingly, fish oil-based diets markedly suppressed breast tumor incidence (57% of mice vs. 87% of corn oil-fed mice, P = 0.0001) as well as tumor multiplicity (P = 0.001) and mammary gland dysplasia (P = 0.001). These findings demonstrate a potent preventive effect of (n-3) PUFA on HER-2/neu-mediated mammary carcinogenesis, without interaction with a synthetic PPARgamma activator. Further studies focusing on the mechanisms by which (n-3) fatty acids suppress HER-2/neu signaling pathways involved in the pathogenesis of breast cancer are warranted.

PMID: 15867269 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

[karenann]

When I started having problems with the dialated pupil and blurry vision, the first thing I did was go to my eye doctor and get an eye exam. She said that my eyes were fine and thought that it was probably ocular migarines; however, I did get an MRI with contrast to rule out, "pathology".

Eric, your wifes problem could be a lot of things, but it is always a good idea to get it checked out. Do you think your wife's doctor could schedlule the scan (MRI with contrast is best for brain) earlier, so you don't have to wait the month and be nervous? I was able to get in 2 days after my doc wrote the order because I asked them to put me on a wait list.

Try not to worry.

Karen

[eric]

Thank you all so much for your input. It helps alot! I am pushing for scans as quickly as possible and will let everyone know as soon as I hear back. What a great support system! I'm sad but proud to be part of it.

Love to all,
Eric

[mkrny]

jojo,
I think the eye doc in Eric's case was referring to the eye when he said "... it has nothing to do with her vision...". In fact it sounds like he suggested a hard look at the MRI for mets in the occipital lobe. If so then maybe this time the doc was proactive.
Ken

[Sandy H]

This is interesting because in oncology today I over heard the nurses talking about a patient who was seeing a shadow in one eye and went to a specialist and it was olculac ?sp. migranes. Another patient was seeing a rainbow. I have never heard of it. Something else to keep in mind. You are all so good at keeping us on track. I think when it comes to our eyes we panic big time. Always, needs to be checked out. hugs Sandy

[Esther]

Eric, ask your onc for a stat order on the MRI. I was having my MRI done within 2 hours of consulting my onc and telling him I was having headaches and feeling nauseas.

They can push it up considerably if you ask them to. 1 month is too long to wait, both for your peace of mind and because you don't know what you are dealing with.