Slow hair growth and lifting nails on Herceptin

[Dianedack]

Has anyone else suffered from very slow hair growth and thin hair - my hair used to be very thick and long and grew quickly. My nails were also strong & long. I now have very little hair and bald patches. What hair I do have is thin and my nails are also still black and lifting. Oncologist says this is still from the Docetaxal and not the Herceptin but I finished the Chemo 18 months ago and I am continuing with Herceptin so I feel its got the be the Herceptin. Has anyone got the same problem?

[Jackie07]

Diane,

Here's a thread with some discussions on the burns and nails issues:

http://her2support.org/vbulletin/sho...ighlight=nails

My hair did grow back - very slowly and 'finer' looking than before.

[Rich66]

I think there has been recent info on hair damage done by taxanes being more durable in some patients than previously thought. But a lot of this seems to be individual to begin with. My mom has had almost no exposure to Taxanes (1 infusion of Taxol in '08) and has felt more comfortable "wigging up" for some time now. Currently on Tamoxifen, Tykertb, Xeloda and Cytoxan...side dish of metformin..and suppplements.
She had solo Herceptin for a while but those were good hair days.

[Sandra in GA]

Diane,
Herceptin does cause hair to just "sit there" and not grow. After I finished Taxol, my hair came back in, but it did not grow. My onc told me this was the norm. It started coming back in March and just the gray came in first. Slowly, the darker hair began to come in while I finished the Herceptin and Tykerb in Nov. Then, it really started growing. By March I was ready for a trim to get my gray "fringe" off. When it grew longer, I realized it was very curly and a completely different texture! Now, a year later, it is slowly returning to its natural straight and fine state.

I hope you do well with your treatment. I found hats, caps, and scarves to be more comfortable than a wig. But, everyone is different. I found a web site, headcovers.com, that offered caps and hats made especially for us.

Sandra

[Lani]

there is a thread
"Please post your two cents on Herceptin "side effects" real or perceived!" ...
with over 530 posts and over 41,500 views. If you add your experiences to that post, perhaps someday a researcher/drug company might get interested in looking farther into it. Besides, it makes it easier for someone looking into whether anyone else has experienced a side effect easier than trying to read many small, short thread.

By the way, it makes good reading thanks to so many contributions

The thread is located under the Herceptin/Tykerb forum and just keeps on growing. Let's hope it comes to someone's attention someday and improves the information given to patients and understanding of the many effects all these drugs have on some people when given to many ("post-marketing research which the FDA
requires drug companies to do, but which they seem to do so little of)

[Cal-Gal]

Here-Here-
Slow, thinning hair--and awful nails--have been off Herceptin 8 months--chemo 19 months--
But here is the key--

I am Here-Here!!!