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For your HER2 medications, those are generally Pertuzumab derivative and trastuzumab derivative. And sometimes patients only need trastuzumab derivatives, but for certain cancers, your medical oncologist may use both. These medications can affect the heart, and so prior to the use of these medications, an echo of the heart or an ultrasound of the heart is routinely performed to ensure that you have good what’s called systolic or pump function to the heart. Also, during your treatment with these medications, you will generally get routine echos of your heart every 12 weeks. And this is also to ensure that that pump function stays well. If your heart’s pump function goes down, your medical oncologist will be monitoring this and will alter your treatment as needed. But most of the time, patients can hold on that treatment and it can be restarted. If the systolic function of your heart does decrease during treatment, there’s a very good chance that that will increase back to your prior baseline after treatment. In addition, these treatments, especially the Pertuzumab, can cause significant diarrhea. And so that’s something as well that your medical oncologist will be following. Diarrhea can be a reason that patients have a difficult time with this treatment, even though those HER2 medications aren’t technically chemotherapy.
