Fever and Herceptin

Hi Everyone,

I just had my first herceptin treatment yesterday, and my temperature went up to 102. I thought this was not like chemo? Has anyone else experienced this. I don't know how I will get through a year of this. I am hoping it gets easier as I go. Any help is appreciated.

[anne]

Hi,

You know it does affect your immune system. My mom gets sick much easier and her RBC was down many times. I am sure you probably caught a virus, everybody seems to be sick or your body is adjusting to the new drug. Hope it goes well from now on.

Anne

Barbara:

I have had 3 herceptin treatments so far. The first time I had a fever and chills for a couple hours on the first day. I also had loose stools and a runny nose. The second treatment, I had the chills on the second night. When I took my temperature, it was below normal. On this last treatment, my temperature was below normal (97.3), I feel a little cold but no chills. I'm hoping each time the side effects will be less.

I am getting herceptin every three weeks. If you are doing it weekly, your first dose will be larger than the weekly treatments. If you get it every three weeks, you will be getting the same dose as the first time.

So far, the first dose had the worst side effects. I was very discouraged because I thought I would breeze through herceptin with no problems. It is getting better...

LindaBL

Hi Barbara - I started taking Herceptin in February of this year - I was told that I could get fever and chills, nausea and vomiting, pain or a headache (flu-like symptoms) - if you get these symptoms they usually occur after your first treatment and begin to subside with each treatment.
After my first treatment, I woke up in the middle of the night just drenched, but things have been fine since then - I don't think I feel any different after I get it.
I don't know what is standard practice, but I am in Ontario - before I get Herceptin, I am given Benadryl (a type of antihistamine) and 2 tylenol tablets.
Hope this helps!
Mary

You need to tell you oncologist. Some people handle weekly doses better then three weeks. I have been on both and I rather do weekly, my oncologist really pushes for all his patients to do weekly. He feels a single dose weekly is better on the body then triple amount every 3 weeks. Makes sense to me. Now, if traveling is a hardship then he is o.k. with every 3 weeks. When I feel like I am having flu like symptoms and I do now and then after I get home I take tylenol and am fine the next day. When I am on chemo I take a benadryl the first night and that helps me sleep. I prefer this to sleeping pills that leave me hung over the next day. Also it is very important to drinks lots of water the day of and day after the treatment. I usually drink a gallon of water a day. If I don't drink lots of water I don't feel well. I sweat and my head feels funny just yucky feeling hard to discribed. I have heard the nurses tell the patient drink, drink and drink water!! Need to flush out the kidneys and liver or they will get toxic. Good luck, hugs, Sandy

From breast cancer.org:

Herceptin has some side effects, but the good news is that it doesn't cause the hair loss and nausea associated with most chemotherapy drugs.

Mild side effects
Herceptin causes flu-like symptoms in about 40% of the women who take it. These symptoms may include fever, chills, muscle aches, or nausea. These side effects generally become less severe after the first treatment. Other side effects, including low white or red blood cell counts, diarrhea, and infections, are seen in some women receiving Herceptin in combination with chemotherapy, but are rarely seen in women taking Herceptin alone.

Al

ps it's all normal stuff

Yes, the fever is quite common..mine usually goes up to about 101.5 and sometimes lasts for 14 hours till it breaks..usually in the sweats one woman mentioned. I have always looked upon this as a good thing. Raising the body temperature kills anything that might be lurking and is a terrific work out for your immune system. That is why I NEVER recommend that the pre-meds be taken as they dampen this beneficial/healing effect. The Benadryl dampens the immune response and the Tylenol minimalizes the fever. Although this is great from a managing symptoms point of view..isn't what we REALLY want is to KILL the cancer cells???...remember, the herceptin alone only basically "tags" over -expressing her-2 cells for destruction...it is actually YOUR OWN IMMUNE SYSTEM THAT has to go in there and do the dirty work to clean up the tumor debris.

NO, HERCEPTIN is not a more typical "chemo" .. it is an immuno therapy...let's not lose sight of that...Therefore, doing all your can to maintain a healthy diet and get adequate rest is very good combined with the Herceptin...Also, though it is tempting, don't play HERO...your body is undergoing such a surge in your immune response that the best thing of all is to DRINK plenty of fluids as Sandy so rightly suggests and to SLEEP it off...and rest up the next day, too, if you can. Hmmm...should I add this?? I have taken Herceptin for over 6 years...and every infusion is more or less a repeat of the other with one caviat...the higher my tumor burden, the higher the fever and the greater the flu bone-like pain...the lower my markers...signifying...we hope a lighter tumor burden, the less fever, less pain. Fever is a good sign. One woman I work with just returned to Herceptin today after being off everything for a year and a half...things progressed...as they will if left unattended to the point where she was told by the oncologist (who had not all this time NOTICED she was her-2+++ ER-PR-) that there was no hope..she was planning to go off to the country to die in peace...then, the onc happened to "NOTICE" the her-2 element and put her on a high re-loading dose earlier today (8mg/kg I THINK>>)....by 5:30pm, her distraught husband was calling me after hours worried to death with his wife's horrible fever over 101.5...I was so happy, you know, as I KNEW she had got to the Herceptin just in the nick of time and it was working. That is the really cool thing with Herceptin...if you are really in a bad shape, or even just medium bad, you will know when it hits. If you take it without pre-meds and don't notice too much...also good news PROVIDED you are her-2 +++, as it usually means things are under CONTROL...smile. If you don't chart them yet, find a way to get your tumor markers taken regularly...that way, neither you nor your onc will have to "guess." I know you feel bad tonight, but by Monday, you will feel like your entire cancer experience was a terrible flu that somehow you "got over". You should have more energy and start feeling really good soon. Best of luck, Gina