Herceptin and heart problems

Hi Bonnie B. I have never had herceptin, but I have had so much chemo that I can probably compete with a small nuclear plant for levels of toxicity. At some point there was some suspicion concerning my heart, so I was referred to a cardiologist.who was familiar with cancer treatment-related heart issues. My ECG and echo were great, but a blood test was dodgy on one occasion and even dodgier when repeated two weeks later. This caused some frowns as it seemed to introduce a contradiction, so the conclusion was to wait more, repeat the blood test, and then either I'm off the hook as far as cardio is concerned, or we start digging further into this by doing an MRI and going from there. I still have to wait a while before this blood test is due, so in the meantime I am just monitoring myself.

Some women go into cancer treatment with already-existing heart issues, and there are protocols to accommodate that. They also have protocols and pathways for those of us who develop heart issues while on treatment, but these may vary to some degree from one hospital to another.

Hi Bonnie. I’ve been started on herceptin (2nd injection done last week - mine are 3 weeks apart for a year! I had stage 3 cancer in left breast and between it being found on routine scan (at 8mm) to being removed 2 months later - it had grow to 42mm and the lymph gland they removed was positive although in initial biopsy it was negative, so they put me through chemo that ended in Jan, then did lymph gland removal and I’m awaiting results at the mo which will be followed by radiotherapy as long as results are normal . They told me herceptin is normally given as part of a dual process, but my heart function , shown on a MUGA scan, dropped from 55% to 45% and they referred me to heart specialist. In meantime they put me on drug to try to raise heart function but said they  couldn’t start herceptin until my heart scan result was 50%. As you say, I then started to be short of breath - I could manage food shop, thanks to hubby having blue badge so we could park near our main local food store, and using trolley, which takes my weight so i can get around store. On second MUGA heart scan my heart function had gone up to 47% so, as I had the appt with the heart specialists team, after having a long discussion with him on the phone, they opted to just start the herceptin injection. I saw the heart team 2 weeks ago and discussed things with her - when I mentioned my MUGA heart scan to her, she stated she always gets annoyed that the hospital refer everyone if their results are below 50% but the MUGA scan actually monitors the heart muscle movement, not the heart function and 55% is normal for most adults! They’ve now doubled some of my meds to try to get my heart working as well as possible, but are regularly monitoring things for me. Apparently herceptin can slow the heart function which is why it’s monitored carefully before they start giving it. I’ve had a few echocardiographs lately before my operations etcand my heart is beating fast on those. I’m in statins as well as the perindoprol which they’ve recently doubled the strength of and another heart drug I only started last week. They’re also speaking to the specialist to discuss another possible drug but need his opinion as I’m diabetic so I had blood tests today and I’m seeing the cardio team again in 2 weeks .