Herceptin-Tykerb-Avastin-Zometa Dosing

[SoCalGal]

Hi all-

I received a pm asking my chemo dosing and decided to post info for all and so it's "search able" in the future. This is the info from my flow chart so I don't know what measure they use but the numbers are entered. I'm sure your doctor will know the measure.

This is based on my height at 5'7" and my weight at 122ish.

Every three weeks
herceptin: 340 and avastin: 850

Every 6 weeks (every other infusion)
*zometa - 4

(*felt random flu like with body/bone pain after first infusion around days 3 and 4 but then was fine. Now feel some mild random bone pain about 3 days later - nothing that tylenol can't handle. The bone pain does not correlate to my mets nor is it the same each time. ie: once in my shoulder - one time my hip - lower back etc. Nothing that would stop one's day).

Every Day
1250 mg Tykerb
(5 pills - I recommend that you start with 3 pills and increase every 4 days until you get to 5 pills. This is the best method to avoid terrible diarrhea and to give your body a chance to adjust. I started Tykerb long before Herceptin. Noticed slight increase in toilet time following Herceptin. Noticed HUGE improvement after about 6 months on Tykerb with feeling normal - being able to go out in the world without it being about restroom to restroom)

My heart function test was normal. I eat a dairy free and gluten free diet along with taking many PHARMACEUTICAL quality supplements every day - no exceptions. The Omega oils and high quality co-q 10 protects the heart amount other things.

And you do not loose hair on this regime - mine has grown back. My fingernails and toenails are still weak and pealing and I have hand and foot skin sensitivity at times due to the Tykerb I'm sure.

Worse side effect for me is fatigue. Second worse is dryness. My eyes-skin and girl zone is very dry so that is a challenge to deal with and not let it get in the way of my life (like wearing my contacts everyday and I use gobs of lotion so my makeup looks nice and gobs and gobs and gobs of lube and internal replens so I can have a healthy sex life despite libido affected by above list). Third worse is learning to manage the diarrhea.

In my opinion - none of my side effects even belong in the same book as how you feel on non-targeted therapies such as Adria or Taxateer or Carbo or Gemzar etc. but of course they are also very very effective!

I sure hope this helps you and your doctors make decisions.

Best Regards-
Flori

[julierene]

I am so surprised they are using all 3 receptor blockers on you. My onc seems to think if Herceptin and Tykerb aren't working, then it's ok to stop taking them and try the Avastin. I can see the logic in that.

Is there any data to suggest that Herceptin and Tykerb work better than either alone?

On a side, I have forgot the name of the new class of medicine that my onc suggested for the Avastin. Can anyone throw out as many names as they can on the typical combo's for Avastin?

[jones7676]

There is quite a bit of data unless they do the test to determine one or the other is not working. My doctor refuses to both too, and that is why I am hoping to participate in a clinical trial whre they will test me. It is extremely frustrating to say the least!

[julierene]

What kind of test? Is there something to show that they work or not?

http://www.gsk.com/media/pressreleas...ease_10047.htm

seems like continuing on herceptin, EVEN when you've progressed on herceptin, and adding tykerb to the mix is a good idea.

"Despite receiving multiple prior lines of anti-cancer therapy, patients who received [Tykerb] plus [Herceptin] in this study experienced:

- A statistically significant increase in median progression-free survival versus [Tykerb] alone (12 weeks vs. 8.1 weeks)1

and this was in a patient population that "had received a median of three prior lines of [Herceptin]."