This week one of our 2nds Together community talks about her experience of being on vinorelbine, also known by the brand navelbine.
I was diagnosed with secondary breast cancer at the end of December 2020.
I had a recurrence in my boob and mets were found on lung, liver and a spot on my pelvis just before I finished my year of herceptin. I had a mastectomy and a liver biopsy which showed her2+ er/pr negative and they put me on kadcyla for 3 rounds which didn’t work.
Then they moved me to herceptin perjeta and navelbine every 3 weeks via IV. My oncologist recommended IV was better as the tablet form could badly affect your stomach and she wouldn’t be sure I would get the correct dose by doing tablets. Navelbine was rough on my veins so I had a port fitted after a couple of rounds.
Not much to report on side effects. No hair loss, loss of appetite or anything. In fact I found it rather easy. I did get blood clots around my port and a couple of infections but not sure if that was related to the navelbine. I had to have treatment via iv at one point and got shingles on the back of my hand. Again not sure if it was related to the navelbine but my oncologist thought at first it was from the navelbine but my nurse pointed out she thought it was shingles which halted treatment thank goodness. Apparently if I had gone ahead I would have possibly had shingles all over... After three months the first scans all was ok but at six months 2nd set of scans there was a bit of progression so they decided to switch me off navelbine.
Enhertu was mentioned but as it had not arrived at that point I was put on Cape with hp. After having that for a while it was decided that we needed to get a bit tougher so currently on taxol weekly with carbo and hp every 3rd week and zometa. Last scans showed this is working - stable and some improvements.