[Paris]

Hi, As someone who was pulled off of herceptin due to cardiomyopathy I would go see a cardiologist and get an echocardiogram. Usually a ten percent drop is enough to have herceptin halted. I am curious why your onc. wants to wait so long to check you again. Are you having any symptoms such as shortness of breath, fatigue or exercise intolerance? This is what I had and my MUGA was never below 60%. However because of the symptoms I was having, and after much complaining to my onc. I had a cardiac cath, and stress echo which depending on what measure you want to look at ranged between 35% to 50%; much lower than the MUGA. The MUGA does not show wall motion which can also be affected by herceptin. Plus if you were on an anthracylcine before herceptin you have a greater chance of heart damage. In most cases herceptin damage can be repaired with meds and carefull monitoring but I don't think you should wait and then have it become a real problem. With my "mild" heart damage I will most likely be on meds for a year and am at 25% of what I could aerobically do before bc. I wish my doctors had listended when I first started complaining to them. Perhaps it wouldn't have come to this. If I were you I wouldn't sit around waiting to see what may happen. Good luck. Jamie