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What are the effects of Herceptin for HER2 positive? Not doing chemo
I recently had a partial mastectomy for 2 invasive carcinomas, 1.5 cm and 1.4cm. I both are hormone positive, and one is HER2 positive. I am 80 years old, and have declined chemo, since Stage 1 and need quality of life to continue to work for financial reasons. I had been told I need radiation, which I was planning to do, but now told I need Herceptin treatments. I am concerned about affects to heart, and also being sick after the infusions. What kind of symptoms did you have?
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@jean1113 I had Taxol/Herceptin in 2022 and was told it was standard of care to have Herceptin with chemo or insurance wouldn’t cover it. This may have changed so I would check with your doctor and insurance company. I had low dose chemo and had very few side effects.
@jean1113 : Before I started chemo my husband bought these special ice packs for my hands and feet that he changed every 20 minutes during my infusion. (They were kept in an ice chest on dry ice.) I never suffered from neuropathy. (Actually, we started 30 minutes before the infusion and continued until 45 minutes after the infusion.) I never had neuropathy. Then my sister received a b/c diagnosis and I recommended she do the same. Her husband had passed away ( she lives 10 hours away from me) and maybe she didn't want to inconvenience the friend who accompanied her to the clinic but, unfortunately, she did suffer from neuropathy. I was cold-capping to keep my hair as well. Hopefully, if keeping your hair is important to you the infusion clinic/hospital will have a cold capping machine. Mine did not and it was a lot of work on my husband's part. (And I will be eternally grateful to him for his effort on my behalf.) This was all out of pocket for us. My daughter was recently diagnosed with b/c and we have learned that in the state of California, starting January 2027, the insurance company will be required to pay for cancer patients wanting to use the cold capping machines but not the dry ice method of changing out your own cold caps every 20 minutes.