Navelbine

Colleen007 · 06-21-2011, 11:43 AM

I have been on Navelbine for over 4 years. I also find it easy to take with my biggest side effects being low white blood count (I get Neupogen and Neulasta injections for this), heartburn, and altered taste buds. Food tastes "off" but it hasn't stopped me from eating it ;-). I was bald when I started Navelbine and I now have shoulder length hair...it has "thinned" twice in 4 years but nothing that anyone but me noticed.

Also, as Sheila mentions, Navelbine is very hard on tissue and my cancer center strongly recommends a port for infusions. Not to scare you, but my last port malfunctioned last year and I have first-hand experience on Navelbine infiltrating the surrounding tissue (I have a new port now). If it is just for the short-term, you probably won't need one, but if it looks like you will be on Navelbine for awhile, you may want to consider getting a port.

Good luck to you! My liver has been "clear" for awhile now thanks to Navelbine and I hope it does the trick for you.

Colleen

StephN · 06-21-2011, 12:17 PM

Hello Ann -
Yes, I did have treatment with Navelbine along with Taxol and Herceptin. This 3-drug approach was meant to attack the cancer cells three different ways.

Navelbine is an antimitotic agent. This means that the drug is active in disrupting the disease at a particular point in cell division, during mitosis.

The taxanes work as antimicrotubule agents. Thus the Navelbine will be a new kind of attack that your cancer cells have not seen.

Since I had TWO hard chemos at the same time it was hard to tell which side effect can from which drug. But, I was told by the nurses that what I experienced was exacerbated by both drugs.

My taste buds were blasted and I had mouth sores from time to time. Since I had Taxol at the same time, my hair fell out again.

Constipation was somewhat of a problem, and I could drink Senna tea almost daily which took care of that problem. Also stepped up my fiber intake.

I did take a stomach acid blocker as I had while on Taxotere. Never needed it after stopping the drug.

Learning HOW each drug works in causing cell death allowed me a good visual for inner work.

All the best in this next skirmish!