Taxotere, Carboplatin and Herceptin
Comments
-
Here is information I found on how often you should be monitored (heart) while on Herceptin, and in the two years after.....since a small percentage of women don't experience heart damage until up to a couple years out.
If you're not being monitored, you might want to direct your Onc to this site.
0 -
Just another chiming in here. The back pain from the first nuelasta shot was so bad I couldn't stand up straight for almost 2 days. The other 5 were no where near as bad as the first. I took Aleve for the pain before it started the last 5 times.0
-
nice site TonLee.0
-
I agree Omaz.
That site has everything you ever wanted to know about Herceptin...I like the heart monitoring info for obvious reasons, but it also gave me info on how my Onc is making decisions. For instance, a patient can stop herceptin up to 3 times for cardiac toxicity, but after that they should be taken off it completely. Lots of good info...
0 -
has anybody ever answered the question about 17 or 18 teatments? I went to a conference in September and there was a Genentech guy there - totally chemo-branied and forgot to ask him that question!
0 -
SpecialK - My onc PA said that I had to have 18 to get the full dose and from TonLee's site it says:
A complete course of Herceptin should result in a total dose of 110 mg/kg of Herceptin, regardless of the dosing regimen used
0 -
SpecialK My MO told me she bases it on 52 weeks-when the nurses counted it out from the first infusion they told me I would have a total of 18...(that's some weird math, however, because 52 divided by every 3 weeks=17.3) Hmmmm0
-
Omaz Well that would certainly make more sense i.e. an overall dose that ends up requiring 18 infusions-seems more logical to me.0
-
dragonfly - The math thing was what my MO was telling me too, then he mumbled something and wandered away... I wonder if the "year" of Herceptin actually means the last infusion is at the 53rd week. Thoughts?
0 -
I think (and that's a big think) if you take the individual dose of herceptin, for example 450mg, then divide by the your current weight in kg you get the dose in mg/kg for a single treatment then you add them all up to the total dose. What do you think SpecialK and dragonfly, does that work?0
-
SpecialK Guess it's a safer bet basing it on the overall dose as Omaz listed but I wondered the same thing about the year ending in the 53rd week (maybe I'm just trying to make sense of my MO too:) All I know is that I can see the end of that year in sight now!0
-
omaz - not sure, but I was idly looking around at my last Herceptin and happened to notice the amount of drug mixed into the IV and wondered exactly what the number meant because it was an unusual number. They have not been weighing me lately so I wonder if they made that calculation at the very first infusion, did the division and that is the dose I get. Now I am curious!
0 -
I just looked at Genentech's site - they say 18 doses ends at 52 weeks if you received H every 3 weeks.
0 -
so one with chemo ... and count out 17 more treatments every three weeks? is that what you do? i just looked up my dosage and i've been getting 399 mg of herceptin each time. does that sound right?
0 -
My DH is now sitting beside me doing mathematical calculations and we are both laughing because nothing is adding up. So, Omaz according to your formula can you make any sense of this: My weekly infusion amount was 227 mg (don't know the amount of my current larger dose because I haven't written that one down) and I weigh 125.
SpecialK, they only weighed me once at the beginning of treatment-seems they should have checked my weight again in case I gained weight during chemo. Maybe the difference is insignificant. I wonder if the fact that I had weekly Herceptin and then switched to every 3 weeks affects the way they count it for me? Just one more of the variances we might be dealing with...Very curious
0 -
dragonfly - yes, look at the link posted above for Genentech. It has a little chart for the weekly that converts to every 3 weeks, a chart for AC-TH and a chart for TCH every 3 weeks. Being a math wizard is hard!
yaya - your dose sounds pretty close to mine, mine was like 383. If you are every 3 weeks you get 6 with chemo, then either 11 or 12 more over the remaining year.
0 -
0
-
Loula,I am using Penguin Cold Caps rather than the elastogel caps, but I think the protocol would be the same. After 4 of 6 treatments, my hair is still all here. My caps came with very specific instructions including: 50 minutes of caps before chemo, caps during chemo, then 4 hours of caps after. They need to be in a special freezer or dry ice that will keep them at -33 degrees Celsius. Caps are to be changed every 30 min. Hair washing is to be kept to a minimum, once or twice a week, only using organic shampoo and conditioner, and luke warm to cool water. No rubbing, just very gentle washing. Only blow dry with cold air. No curling irons etc. There is a topic on this website for all cold cap users that is very helpful. Topic is called "Cold Cap Users, Past and Present". Good Luck!0
-
specialK, it says on the herceptin site that we're supposed to get 3-4 mg of herceptin. now i'm really confused. help, please!0
-
yaya - I think for us, we have a loading dose of 8mg and then 6mg every three weeks.
0 -
yaya - I think for us, we have a loading dose of 8mg and then 6mg every three weeks if you get it weekly then it's a loading dose of 4 and then 2mg every week. That's my guess from TonLee's website. It looks like I got 8 and then 6 which makes sense.
0 -
yaya - Now that I look at this it must be total volume of Herceptin and the saline together. Sorry to scare you!
0 -
I got ~450mg herceptin at each infusion except for the first one which was 610mg. i wrote them down.
0 -
yaya - I think it's 4mg/kg, so you have to multiply the 4mg times your weight in kg to get the dose. yes?0
-
now, why would you get more herceptin than i did, omaz? my oncotype score was 64%.
0 -
yaya - I weigh more than you do I suspect, at that time I weight about 170 pounds.0
-
dragonfly and hubby - does it make sense?0
-
If it is based on weight, the dosing amount times weight in kg would yield different amounts per person. When I did that I came up with the amount I saw on the bag at the last infusion.
0 -
thank you, omaz and specialK. i can't believe i didn't think to ask my MO this question. now i feel a little dumb. thank you both so much.0
-
Laura5, thank you for the info!
0
