That does sound a little backwards...if you're going in for Herceptin every week, why don't they give you the taxol & carbo too? Doing your chemo+Herceptin on a weekly schedule (3wks TCH, 4th wk Herceptin, only)is called "dose-dense" or metronomic therapy. They give you a smaller dose, but more frequently. They've found that following a dose-dense regimen there's less toxicity, so the side effects are more manageable and marginally greater efficacy. They've also found that more frequent exposure to chemo interrupts angiogenesis, preventing those tumor cells from sprouting its own blood vessels & maintaining the blood supply so the cells can continue to divide & grow.
"The anti-angiogenic efficacy of chemotherapy seems to be optimized by administering comparatively low doses of drug on a frequent or continuous schedule, with no extended interruptions — sometimes referred to as 'metronomic' chemotherapy..."
If you want to read the full article, cut & paste this link:
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/480745
I did 12 weeks of TCH, dose-dense, and after ~week 8, the side effects started to really get to me-feeling yucky, awful taste in my mouth, etc. I can't imagine what I would have felt like with the triple dose!
Hang in there & keep the faith!
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