I have had very low Red blood cells and one episode of serious anemia. I had two units of blood. Now red blood cells reduced again and oncologist has reduced my dosage to 100mg twice a day. Have been talking Verzenios since August 2022. How effective is the lower dose ?
Hi mousely,
If you look at the Monarch E trial dose reduction didn’t effect the outcome. I am also on abemaciclib and have recently been seeing a pharmacist oncologist (in uk and oncologist in NHS busy, so after 3 months in my trust I have then been seen by pharmacists oncologist to prescribe my Abemaciclib), anyway he approaches his knowledge from a slightly different knowledge base. He was informing me of a study which looked at our genetic makeup, as depending on that this study suggests we all metabolise medication differently and some of us need higher doses of a medication than another person would require, yet both individuals would have the same results from the medication with different levels of that medication. He said this is why they start us on 150mgs of Abemaciclib, check how our body is coping with that dose and then some of us may need to reduce dose depending on the effect the medication has on us as individuals yet the medication is still as effective.
I haven’t seen the study this pharmacist mentioned and I can’t remember what it was called but it sounded logical to me.
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I have reduced my dosage twice. Even went on 50 mg for a 2 month holiday break. Now back on 100mg bd. I was told by my oncologist that the 100 mg is as effective as 150mg.
We are all different ages and body sizes and metabolise the drug differently. You cannot compare a 6 foot person to a 5 footer and also BMI will have some effect.
It also depends on general health and many other factors.
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