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Is anyone else on Talazoparib?

NP1973
NP1973 Member Posts: 2
edited July 2019 in Metastatic breast cancer
Hi Ladies,
I am a 46 year old wife and mother of 2.
My initial diagnosis of Breast Caner was in 2013 -Er+ Pr+ HER2-. After Chemo, Radiation, Oopherectomy, Double Mastectomy, I thought I had the all clear but alas I was wrong. In 2016 my Cancer returned in the bones and is now residing in my Liver and causing a lot of discomfort. We have tried Letrozole with Palbociclib for 6 months, then fulvestrant and Venetoclax, then Capecitabine, then Abraxane and my Liver kept getting worse. Now I have started Talzenna/Talazoparib and I was wondering if any of you ladies have tried this Chemo, if so how are you coping with side effects?
Thankyou in advance
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Comments

  • Kattykit
    Kattykit Member Posts: 252
    Hi @NP1973, no, I'm not on this combination but I just wanted to welcome you here and I hope that you can get some good results from this latest treatment. xxx Kat.
  • NP1973
    NP1973 Member Posts: 2
    Thank you Kat, it’s early days but I pray that it works. Are you also hormone positive?
  • Kattykit
    Kattykit Member Posts: 252
    I've been on ribociclib/ letrozole, since Dec 2017, truly I have no idea, I'm sure it's written down somewhere, I think maybe negative, I've been doing really well apart from joint pain from the letrozole and a bit of fatigue. As you can probably guess I'm not one who needs to know all the details.
    I let my oncologist do the worrying.
  • RachelleRachelle
    RachelleRachelle Member Posts: 34
    edited August 2019
    @NP1973 I was taking talazoparib for just over two years. I was diagnosed de novo with metastatic breast cancer in August 2016 and after letrozole failed, I started taking talazoparib as a part of the EMBRACA clinical trial in December 2016. I have a BRCA2 mutation and my cancer is ER/PR+ and HER2-. I had progression earlier this year (side effects became unbearable and tumour markers sky-rocketed before it was evident in scans) and I started on capecitabine in early April.

    Until I switched over to capecitabine, I didn't realise that the side effects were quite significant on talazoparib. My energy levels/fatigue was very hard to deal with even though it improved over time - I found it really difficult to get up in the morning no matter how much I slept the night before.
    The nausea never went away and this seemed to be present in the mid-morning (despite whether I ate breakfast or not), medication never really helped either. I found other things to make it easier to deal with but nothing ever completely made the nausea subside. Drinking kombucha as well as a green powder mixed with orange juice in the morning helped me.
    Additionally, I had never completely lost my hair because I was dianosed de novo and never had any prior treatments other than hormone therapy but I had significant hair thinning. I cut my hair short to cover my temples, my eyebrows were sparse and I had few eyelashes. Growth of body hair slowed right down so waxing appointments were few and far between :D .

    Although talazoparib is not chemotherapy (it is a PARP inhibitor and considered targeted therapy), I couldn't believe how much the above side effects subsided when I started chemotherapy with capecitabine. I can set myself an alarm now and actually respond to it in the morning, I do not experience any nausea whatsoever and I am rapt that my eyebrows and eyelashes now look "normal" again.

    I was so happy that I was able to receive talazoparib and I am disappointed that it was no longer effective, so I wish you the very best of luck and I am here to answer any further questions. Since there are not that many people who have taken/are taking talazoparib, you may find some support in the Facebook group: People taking talazoparib aka talzenna or on EMBRACA study.

    Can I enquire how you able to access Talzenna? I know that it is approved in the US and now Europe. I was able to receive it via clinical trial and I want to help support any campaigning for it to be accessible in Australia.  
  • brightspace
    brightspace Member Posts: 445
    Many thanks for summary of the mets drug trial .. a drug I have not read about ..maybe a future option 
    All the best with change in therapy
    Bright in hope