reduced ejection fraction for herceptin

cherylynnie · 12-11-2006, 10:35 AM

My last MUGA showed a reduction in the left ventricle ejection fraction. My first three all were 65,66,64 respectfully. Now after 6 months of Herceptin my last MUGA was 55. So my oncologist sent me to a cardiologist, he had me do an echo and said that it showed the same as the muga- that I had a reduction in the way my heart is pumping and he put me on an ace inhibitor. Then after my next apt. with the oncologist after he consulted with the cardiologist I got a call from the onc nurse telling me that they(the doctors) decided to swith my treatments to weekly treatments opposed to the every 3 week regiment. Anyone else have this happen to them?

MJo · 12-11-2006, 02:23 PM

No, but thank you for the information. After 36 weeks, my muga went from 70 to 59 to 62 to 54. Due to the 16 point drop, the oncologist stopped treatment. He didn't send me to a cardiologist though. He would have ended treatment that day, but I volunteered to come back in six weeks for another muga. If the muga goes up and the onc and I agree that I should finish a year of treatment, I will ask about weekly vs. every three weeks. MJO

Chelee · 12-12-2006, 12:30 AM

I started herceptin Feb. 06 & have mainly done *weekly* infusions the entire 10 months. I have no idea if its made any difference but my ECHO's have remained in a good range. The smaller dose *may* be easier on the heart doing it weekly? But my first ECHO was 70%, then 69%, 65% & my most recent was 70%. I JUST started doing the 3 wk dose. My last two were the 3 wk doses. I know I will sure wonder if my next ECHO goes down after starting up on the larger dose?

At least your onc is going to let you continue on herceptin...although I know weekly is a pain in the rear going down there. But its worth it in the long run. Plus maybe the smaller dose will give you a much better ECHO results next time.

Good luck...hang in there.

Chelee

cherylynnie · 12-13-2006, 12:55 PM

Thanks MJO and Chelee!

The cardiologist said that he wanted me to stay on the herceptin. I have three and 1/2 more months. And will be doing another muga in the next two weeks before Christmas. It will be a pain going every week. But I am going to make the best of it and go shopping afterwards

I am 1/2 hour from the mall and 20 minutes from Target and Walmart. The Hospital is somewhat between the two. That is okay though because I have a lot to buy to make up for the last 15 months!!

Have a great day!

MJo · 12-13-2006, 01:03 PM

Take it easy. Do not shop til you drop. LOL. But, yes, following treatment with a treat is a good idea. MJO

alicecallahan · 12-13-2006, 04:48 PM

I am ten months into herceptin, my muga has decresased from 65, 64, 60 57 and i am having one in a couple of weeks....i am afraid the doc is going to make me stop the herceptin, i started with weeklys, and then he gave me the option to switch to every 3, telling me there was not data on this, and i thought it was a no brainer to say no to the every 3, but i also am wondering if perhaps this causes more toxicity.....

cherylynnie · 12-14-2006, 08:37 AM

Alice,
So you stayed on the weekly treatments and your muga's have still decreased?

I asked the nurses if anyone else had to do this. Switch from every 3 weeks to weekly. Their answer was - this is how we used to do it, every week. So they didn't exactly answer my question. God forbid they give anyone else's medical info away. They are very careful about that.

There was a thread on here before and I believe it was Trish who said that her doctor continued giving her the herceptin even when her muga was down to 30.

I believe it is a good thing that they are keeping a close watch on us and not want to do any harm unnessesarily.

I also remember reading that there was a study about recieving 9 treatment was just as good as the year. I think someone just posted a new trial -6 months vs. the year on herceptin. I just did the math and 6 months is 8.7 treatments. So it looks like this study I read about months ago, (probably on this site) is now going to be a new clinical trial.

So since I have 8 1/2 months under my belt, I feel pretty comfortable if I have to go off of it. But of course there is also the psycological effect of not being treated anymore.

Thanks for your response! Good luck with your up coming test!

tousled1 · 12-14-2006, 09:14 AM

Cherylynne,

The nine week study you are referring to is the FINNHER study. It was a clinical trail performed by the Finnish using Herceptin every week for nine weeks. The results were comparable to results of one year of Herceptin. The reason the oncologists do not recognize the FINNHER study is that it only consisted of around 300-400 women who were HER2+ as opposed to the USA study that had thousands of women enrolled.

Chelee · 12-14-2006, 02:20 PM

Cheryl, You have the right attitude about this this weekly switch. As much as I dreaded going down for herceptin weekly...I turned it into a day of shopping, & getting much needed errands done. Since I was up early and dressed...might as well keep going. I would plan all the things I would do each Monday after infusion.

As much as I didn't like going down there...it really did help me get alot of things done I might of put off...and like you....the malls and stores I hit were really close to my cancer center so it worked out well.

So I say...go have fun and enjoy your shopping. I will very interested to see if your weekly infusions of herceptin will make a difference in your MUGA. I have a feeling it just might. Mine has stayed great on the weekly. Good luck to you.

Chelee

aaklwalker · 12-14-2006, 07:33 PM

I had the same thing happen, went from 3 week dose to weekly and it has made a huge difference. No rapid heartbeat anymore, will repeat echo soon, expect all to be fine.