Herceptin interrupted by heart problems

[aaklwalker]

I am new to this site. Have finished a/c and taxol. Was taking herceptin every three weeks. Had an ecg that was abnormal, suspended herceptin, repeat ecg was still slightly abnormal. Has anyone had this? What was the recovery time? Was there a recurrence of heart problems when herceptin was restarted?

[lisahammo]

Hi

I have just stopped Herceptin for the same reason. I had my initial treatment (A/C) 3 years ago, and have been taking Taxol/Herceptin on and off for the past 2 years. I had an echocardiogram done that showed some very mild damage to the lower left hand side of my heart. It means it is not functioning as well as it should be. Have you had an echo done, or only the ECG?

I am off the Herceptin for at least 6 months, and we will then do another echo to see if it has repaired itself, and take it from there. It is pretty scary, but I have been assured that the heart can repair itself, so fingers crossed. I also had an angiogram done to make sure it wasn't a blockage, but that was all clear.

Good luck.

Lisa

[Tom]

Hey guys. Mom was off Herceptin for about 3 months, and her ejection fraction came back up from 49% to 60%. AND, she is going to be 83 next month. I would count on your heart function returning to normal soon. You might ask to be put on an ACE inhibitor to help it recover.

Tom

[BonnieT]

hello
I also had to stop herceptin for about 3 months , my Dr. uses MUGA's to check heart status, anything above 50 is good. Anyway mine dropped into the upper 30's. I went to a Cardiologist ( heart specialist) and I was put on Corg. and Cozzar , I also take 150 mg of Coq10 found at a health store.
I changed my herceptin to weekly since you can take a lower dose each week which equalls the 3 week dose. I was able to complete my year of herceptin this past August.
I would definitely think about seeing a cardiologist.
Good Luck
God Bless
BonnieT