Heart function recovery after Herceptin

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Heart function recovery after Herceptin

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Heart function recovery after Herceptin Does anyone know how long it takes for your heart function to recover after Herceptin?

I had to come off it for a couple of months because my heart function had dropped a lot (from 77% to 50%), but I started exercising with a heart rate monitor for -at- 30 min a day, and it started going back up again. I was then able to carry on with the remaining 6 months’ treatment, and finished a year of it 4 months ago.

I’d assumed that if I carried on with the same fairly moderate exercise my heart would gradually get back to full strength again, but lately I’ve been getting out of breath on hills, and today I was really struggling to walk into town and back (only a mile and a half all told, and this was Christmas shopping, not power-walking!). I don’t know if there’s enough experience of Herceptin in primary bc yet for people to know how long it takes for your heart to recover, and I can’t find any relevant information - does anyone else know?

Pippa

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I suspect Pippa that it will vary from person to person. I started on Herceptin back in March 2004 and have been on it continuously every since - bu tI do have secondaries. My base line MUGA scan was 56 - pretty low for a starting point - but as there were no other drug options i was put on it. Over the next 18 months it dropped to only 42 - but as i had no symptoms the oncs agreed to allow me to continue but monitored every 3 months. Now 18 months on it is at 68 - better than the original baseline - with no break and no treatment for it. I think of more concern than the low MUGA reading is when it is accompanied by symptoms of breathlessness and swelling around the ankles.

Dawnhc

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Hi Pippa I have never heard of these problems coming back months after people have stopped herceptin. However, I know that chemotherapy can cause heart problems that show up quite a while after treatment has ended. For example, with adriamcyin followed by a taxane the peak problem period is actually about eighteen months after finishing the drug. You should definitely get your problem checked out, especially if it has been bothering your for more than two weeks.

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Thanks for your replies, Dawn and Christine, that’s useful to know. The problems are only what I had during treatment, not worse; it’s just that there have been short periods when it’s been better, and I was hoping there was some estimate by now of how long it’d take to resolve completely. I did have a look on Medline today and found a few studies suggesting it took a couple of months, but that was for people treated with ACE inhibitors - I really don’t want to go down the drugs-with-side-effects road again just yet, I’ve only just finished a year of warfarin and would like some time off! This is manageable. Guess it’s a question of easing back on exercise intensity and increasing the time a bit. It might help the post-Christmas waistline, too!