Hi, I was diagnosed 10 days ago with invasive ductal bc. Today I was told I am HER2 positive and will have chemo with herceptin before surgery.
anyone able to tell me how this goes? I am really concerned about weight gain as already massively overweight. I hear herceptin is the wonder drug though I have yet to see an oncologist who hopefully will give me news on prognosis etc.
Hi Amber, sorry you find yourself here again after all this time. I had 8 rounds of chemo and here’s my blog which you can read for some useful coping tips: Lifeafterlola.com. I’m 18 months on since diagnosis and doing really well. It’s all doable but it ain’t no walk in the park.
i didn’t have Herceptin but know many that did and had heart monitoring throughout. This runs alongside chemotherapy. Hopefully someone will be here soon to offer reassurance on Herceptin that has gone through it. Best wishes. Xxxx
Hello Amber15,
I had chemo beforehand and also herceptin. The Chemo I had was FECT - 6 sessions. Benefits of having chemo first can be shrinkage of tumour so less invasive surgery is required and also it can show how effective the treatment is. I had a complete pathological response i. e. no active cancer remaining after chemo.
Herceptin usually starts wirh the last few chemos but it does not have to.
At the moment the recommended no of herceptin treatments are 18 over 12 months.
Regarding weight gain. I did not really gain any during chemo etc. I did gain when I started hormone treatment but also managed to lose some of it as well.
If you have any specific questions then fire away. I am sure people will do their best to answer them.
All the best to you ? X