Lung mets during active chemo treatment??
 

Hi everyone,

I'm trying not to be paranoid, but for the past few days I've had a cough that seems to be getting worse. It started with a sore throat a couple of weeks ago and a fever that put me in the ER for 4 hours overnight while I waited for the results of my blood and urine tests (all normal). The sore throat got better (and the fever was gone when I arrived in the ER), but I seem to be very sensitive to air conditioners or changes in temperature. I've been coughing almost the whole weekend as if there's something tickling my throat.

So now I'm paranoid that I have lung mets. I'll go in for a chest X-ray tomorrow before my chemo (3rd dose of Taxotere) on Tuesday. The chest x-ray had already been scheduled as part of the clinical trial I'm in to monitor for side effects of Tykerb.

In any case, is it possible that I've developed lung mets during my active treatment? What are the changes of that? I hope/believe what I have may just be a cold, but thought I'd check anyways. Has anyone had a stage I-III cancer progress to stage IV during active treatment?

Thank you so much!!!

Hi,I am also on taxotere and herceptin and have had a sore throat, slight temp and a cough. I remember when having herceptin alone that I had slight sinusitis ,cough and sore throat from time to time.
My onc says that these symptoms are very common with this combination of drugs.
Please try not to worry at this stage. I know it is so hard not to as everything triggers an anxiety about this damn disease.
Please keep us posted of how you are.
Thinking of you
Ellie

Hi Bejuce,

I often had sore throat and low grade fever during my treatement. It was nothing although I often wondered if there was progression. This is the legacy of this disease...

Praying for you to soon find out that it is just a common cold and nothing more.

peace,
shobha

Bejuce,

It is possible to progress while undergoing treatment. That said, I'd like to remind you that Herceptin and Tykerb cause their fair share of irritation to our throats, eyes, sinuses, etc. I have had my worst year ever for allergies since being on Herceptin. I do notice that I have a cough for a few days post infusion sometimes. My lungs just feel "itchy" after an infusion sometimes, though not always. I'm betting you are having some kind of reaction to the drugs, but you really do need to check it out for peace of mind.

Please post again to let us know how your xray turned out!

Thank you everyone for your concern and support. I had my chest X-ray yesterday and today it was confirmed that the results were all clear, thank God! So it must indeed have been a cold or a reaction to the drugs.

Thank you again and good luck to all of you in your treatments and road to recovery!

Bejuce,

That is such great news! We've all been there wondering if we have these symptoms due to a metastasis. I'm happy for you.

Keep us posted on how you are doing.

Lung mets during active chemo treatment??
 

If your white blood counts are a little low you might have caught a cold or some other "bug". The xray will probably show areas of concern if there are any.
Take care.

I got a respiratory infection during my AC treatments. I had a persistent cough during herceptin. Called it the Herceptin cough. It stopped a few months after Herceptin treatments ended. That said, take very good care of yourself. You don't want to get a bad cold or infection during chemo. Stay out of drug stores -- that's where sick people go to get their medicine!

There is also a syndrome called chemo cough. I had it for 6 weeks while on chemo. Thank goodness it ended before chemo did. It started about a week or 2 after my second AC and continued until I was almost done. This happened to another woman I know too.

Secondly, Herceptin and the taxanes can be quite allergic and allergies can cause coughs even though, in general, one feels quite well (and has very few other allergic type symptoms).