I am afraid of the heart damage associated with Herceptin® (trastuzumab) therapy and want to know if there are any ways to avoid it?
The most important way to avoid this is to not receive trastuzumab together with other drugs with potential of heart disease, such as Adriamycin® (doxorubicin). There may also be some advantage to not receiving it in close proximity with doxorubicin. Beyond that, it is important to realize that such cardiac damage is uncommon and significant congestive heart failure is seen in only approximately 4 percent of patients in large clinical trials (aggregate number of patients from four clinical trials is about 14,000). There are ways to monitor cardiac toxicity by assessing your heart function periodically while you receive treatment. It is also important to know that in many cases such damage is reversible. It tends to occur early rather than late unlike the heart damage with doxorubicin, which is cumulative and occurs after a certain total dose threshold is crossed.
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