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Ribociclib (Kisqali) side effect issues

Breast Cancer | Last Active: Aug 3 10:04am | Replies (19)

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Profile picture for jardinera25 @jardinera25

I'm glad you brought up the CDK4K drug issue! I too am being steered by my Doc toward trying Verzenio. She would like to add a hormone blocker to it also, but after trying 2 AI's and Fulvestrant shots, and then a low dose of Tamoxifen, all of which gave me serious side effects like labile hypertension, very achy legs with a rash after 4 months resulting in some vein insufficiency, and severe headaches, I've decided Hormone blockers are not for me. I see that Verzenio is not a H-blocker, but "a targeted therapy known as a CDK4/6 inhibitor. While it treats hormone-receptor positive (HR+) breast cancer, it works by blocking proteins (CDK4 & 6) that fuel cancer cell division, rather than cutting off hormone production like hormonal therapies." I need to shrink a tumor, so may try it. Hopefully it can be adjusted for weight, because at 130 lbs. and age 76, I seem very sensitive to all meds. I don't want to feel sick and diarrhea-prone for summer, would rather go walking & do gardening, but need to shrink this in-my-chest-wall tumor recurrence from 30 years ago. Maybe follow up with Proton radiation if it shrinks. It's pretty hard to choose another sickening drug when the others gave me more trouble than I had.

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Replies to "I'm glad you brought up the CDK4K drug issue! I too am being steered by my..."

@jardinera25 I don't know if you ended up taking the Verzenio but I did want to mention for anyone reading this in the future, it does come in 4 different doses. 200mg, 150mg, 100mg and 50mg. They seem to want to start people on 150mg and try to keep it at that dose as long as possible but if you have side effects that can't be managed, they can lower it to the next dose and so on. From everything I have read about efficacy studies even on Verzenio's website, they say it will remain just as effective at a lower dose after being on the higher doses for a while. I know of several people who only had to stay on the higher dose like the 150 or 200 for 6 months and then the dr was fine with lowering to 100 or 50 after.