What's in Kadcyla

[yanyan]

I am about to restart Kadcyla this Thursday. Since i am the 1st patient getting this drug at my doctors office i want to make sure that everything is done correctly, most importantly the dosage.

My doctor's office ordered Kadcyla for me and my insurance approved a whole bunch of drugs. Intially i thought it was just herceptin + certain chemo drug. None of the approved drugs the pharm rep read me sound familiar. Does any know what this (these ) drugs are? How do i know if i am getting the right dosage? Is there anything i should ask or confirm with my onco's office?

Thanks!

[CoolBreeze]

Kadcyla is a combination of herceptin and a chemo called mertansine. I read in a nursing magazine that the main dosing mistake is when they give it in the same strength as herceptin, so they changed the name from trastuzumab to ado-tratuszumab to prevent it from being misread. It is supposed to be 3, not 6, (and I can't finish that sentence because I can't remember the mKGb or whatever it is). But that mistake is rare and you can look online for package insert with the dose and the ingredients and ask before you get it, which is very smart.

Good luck to you, here's hoping it is the answer for you! It will be my next chemo so I'm interested in your experience.

Edited to add the wikipedia page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trastuzumab_emtansine

[phil]

my wife is on it, doing very well. Coolbreeze is right about it being a combo of herceptin and a chemo called mtansine or emtansine. the FDA recently recommended adding " ado " as a prefix , calling it ado-trastuzumab emtansine to avoid confusion with original herceptin ( trastuzumab). I have not heard of any actual mistakes made, but its a sensible pre-caution.
the starting dose is 3.6 , but its given in mg. per kg. of body weight . theres a formula that i cant exactly remember, 3.6 ? x kg. per meter squared ? i'm not a scientist.
my wife has had a dose reduction to 3.0, to help keep platelets up, and is about 145 lbs. her current doses fluctuate slightly per body wt., from 189- 191 mg. At the start of tx , at a 3.6 dose level , she recieved T DM-1 ( kadcyla) in the 220 mg . range.
We read and record every dose right off the iv bag. she has had 35 doses since 2010, 7 at 3.6 , the rest at 3.0 level. and is ned. Hope this helps, Good Luck ! God Bless, and Heal ...