Herceptin chills and fever: encouraging?

[Rich66]

I remember a post a while back which mentioned their onc saying chills and fever may indicate H is working. Has there been anything further on this?

[chrisy]

Hi Rich,
I don't know, that might have been me on DM1...

Fever/chills can indicate an immune response to the antibody, but I am not aware of any studies that correlate this with efficacy of the treatment.

So it may mean nothing, but on the positive side, it doesn't mean it's NOT working either!

[gldouglas]

When I first began herceptin I use to get reactions each time which included violent shakes and chills. I was told I was just having an adverse reaction, but there was some comments that maybe that it is showing that the body is reacting to it. I had the reaction after the first several times of Herceptin until my body got accustom.