Hello
I am posting on behalf of my mum as her English is not very well and I am concerned about her health.
A little background - My mum was diagnosed with Breast Cancer last May. Pathology indicated a 22mm Grade 2 Invasive cancer with no lymph nodes affected. It is ER, PR and HER2 positive.
The cancer was removed via an operation last June and after that’s she started Chemotherapy (FEC-T) in August/September 2017. She was only able to make it to the 4th round - All 3 rounds of “FEC” and 1 round of “T”. It just got too much for her and the treatment had to be stopped last year December 2017. Our consultant wasn’t that concerned of stopping it early as she was having targeted treatment after.
After that she went through the whole course of Radiotherapy which ended in February 2018. Since November 2017 she has been on a regular dose of Herceptin every 3 weeks and she is taking Anastrozole every day for the next 5 years.
Her Heart Ejection Fraction from her last MRI scan indicated function at 72%! To me this seems strange as I thought that anyone on Herceptin would have some decrease in heart function?
I guess the concern is the Herceptin. She has had the majority of it with 4 doses to go but recently she has been experiencing heart palpitations a few times throughout the day, every day. She explains that each episode of heart palpitations only lasts 1-2 seconds. Is this to be concerned about as she has not complained about shortness of breath, tiredness, swelling of ankles or chest pains but just sometimes a runny nose, which I understand is one of the side effects?
I want to suggest to the consultant that she has another MRI before the next dose of Herceptin just to ensure that nothing is wrong with the heart. I am wondering if stopping now with 4 doses to go will make any difference as to having the extra 4 doses?
Sorry for the long winded post and thanks in advance.