I have had completed chemo including 4 cycles of Docetaxel with Herceptin and Pertuzumab. I am due to have surgery on Tuesday following a round of Herceptin & Pertuzumab on Saturday.
I am worried about whether it is a good idea to have the two so close together. Staff at the hospital seem quite blase about it as “it’s not like chemo” but I had number of the Herceptin side effects that others on this Forum have described, including mild palpitations, diarrhoea, soreness etc. It’s the effect on the heart that worries me most (though the thought of recovering from both surgery and Herceptin is also daunting!)
Any experience of having Herceptin & Pertuzumab so close to surgery? I will be having lumpectomy and removal of some lymph nodes (ie not mastectomy).
I had Surgery on 4th Sept and 2 days before that i had my Herceptin and Pertuzumab. My consultant said that is was fine to have it as i too was worried about having them so close together. My surgery went well and i was up and about the following day. I don’t think they would do it if there was any cause for concern, so try not to worry too much.
The reason the don’t do surgery close to chemo is because chemo slows your healing Herceptin will not. I had surgery first (not a mastectomy) but had to wait for my surgeon to say she was happy for the chemo to go ahead.
If the Herceptin is giving you aches take claritin hay fever tablets and if it lowers your heart ejection fraction take Pycnogenol & CoQ10. I copied this from a post I made a while ago when someone asked about the heart:
The supplements you want are pycnogenol and CoQ 10.
The combined one they mention is hard to get but you can get them separately from Amazon. I get the Ubiquinol 100mg because that is supposed to be absorbed better.
My first echo scan was 55% and my second was 60% I took the supplements a week after the first one because they said if mine dropped to 50% they would not give me Herceptin. They already stopped my chemo because my blood counts got too low!
How much has your tumour shrunk? Did you decide or your oncologist decide when to have lump removed. How big is the lump? Can they not shrink to nothing? Before surgery?
Why dnt you wait till you recover from side effects of drugs before having surgery?
Isn’t all this too. Much for the body to cope? Did your onc say you need more drugs herceptin after surgery?