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Cough on Low Dose Sprycel

So after 2 years of begging my oncologist to let me try 20 mg/day of Sprycel, he finally relented and wrote the Rx.  I have been on it for almost 2 weeks now and for the past 3 days, have had a fairly persistent mostly dry cough, occasional mild shortness of breath at rest (not during exercise which for me is 2 miles per day on the treadmill) and occasional mild burning in my chest/lung area.

Sounds like a Sprycel side effect to me.  Is this possible given the short duration of treatment and the very low dose? If so, might it go away once my body gets used to it? I'm already thinking about going back to low dose Tasigna, but I switched from that because of irregular heartbeat (benign ectopic beats) and progression of peripheral neuropathy from stage 1 - stage 2, both of which have improved since stopping Tasigna.   

I realize that it's probably too soon to give up on Sprycel, I'm a bit perplexed and frustrated thus far.

Hi ,

I am interested in your point that your peripheral neuropathy associated with Nilotinib  that has now become less troublesome since you have gone on to another tki Sprycel/Dasatinib.I have seen studies that indicate that there are long term effects of tki s on peripheral nerves and especially in relation to the use of Nilotinib-as you no doubt have experienced it is just not just the tingling and numbness in the fingers/hands but the effect on the feet and the feeling of being in a cast all the time.As it progresses it does little for balance and so on.

I guess that in your situation it is an issue of leaving one tki in order to minimise side effects and then to go on to another one and then find a different set of side effects.I have been on Imatinib for a long long time and sometimes I wonder if going on to Dasatinib would help my peripheral neuropathy?However if I did that then would I be affected by pleural issues (lungs filling up and breathing problems) and  then what would I do?

It looks as if in your situation for a while you will have to stick with it.

I am interested how the Nilotinib affected you re. peripheral neuropathy issues as then it would indicate to me that it would not be a tki for me in the future.

Regards

John

John:

I began to experience Stage 1 peripheral neuropathy about 2 years into nilotinib therapy, but it was very intermittent and I didn't pay much attention to it.  About 2 months ago, it progressed to Stage 2 and became worrisome.  So I decided to switch to 20 mg Sprycel, and after 2 weeks, the neuropathy has subsided.  Could be a coincidence, but I doubt it.  Unfortunately, I have now developed the cough and other respiratory symptoms I already described.  I'm going to stick with Sprycel a while longer hoping the respiratory issues subside, but ultimately it may come down to deciding which devil to dance with.