I think that EF frequently go back up with a break from Herceptin. Also, I consulted with Dr. Slamon about how long I should take Herceptin and asked him how concerned I should be if my LVEF dropped and I had to discontinue it. Basically, he told me that I should not be overly concerned if I could not finish out a year of herceptin becasue the one year mark is completely arbitrary. He said there is a study going on now that is testing a 9 week time frame. So let's hope your LVEF imprroves but don't lose hope that you received no benefit from the herceptin that you have had already.
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Janelle
Diagnosed October 2006 at age 37 wtih grade 3 IDC and high grade DCIS
Stage 1c triple positive, no node involvement but
vascular invasion
multifocal disease
Lumpectomy November, 2006
A/C every 3 weeks (started Jan., 2007 and finished March 2007); followed weekly Taxol (finished June 2007) concurrent with Herceptin (finished March 2008);
Bilateral Mast with immediate recon in Sept 2007; finished recon Dec. 2007
Started 5 years of tamoxifen Nov. 2007; started peptide vaccine clinical trial at MD Anderson October 2008 and finished active part of trial in April 2009 (monthly injections of AE37 peptitde (HLA type specific) with GM-CSF or GM-CSF alone depending on if I was in experimental or control group); started Zometa infusions June 25, 2009- 4mg every 6 months for 3 years (taking it "off-label" to try to prevent mets)
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