Drug induced diabetes

[My3girls]

My doctor thinks i have drug induced diabetes. Has anyone else had this happen? I have been taking ibrance and faslodex for 11 months.

[Dianne417]

Hi, My3girls! I have heard of immunotherapy triggering diabetes, but this is the first time I've ever heard of Ibrance and Faslodex being responsible for it. I'll be curious to hear what others say.

[MissyAnn68]

Yes! I got that diagnosis while starting faslodex and ibrance. It continued thru letrozole and kisqali. My endo put me on metformin and my Onc said that was beneficial to fighting breast cancer also. Win win. We can use all the help we can get!

[My3girls in reply to MissyAnn68]

What dosage of metformin did you take and are you still taking it?

[MissyAnn68 in reply to My3girls]

I take one pill a day and it is the lowest dose. I quit taking it a week or so ago just because i have been forgetting it. It takes a little getting used to. I never take on an empty stomach. I try to take with my evening meal and i usually forget. My A1C was in the 7s and after taking metformin for a few months it was low 6s. I didnt want to start yet another new med (as in jan i had just started ibrance/faslodex) so i waited til June and the reason i decided to start metformin is because one evening around bedtime my sugar was 290.

I will start back up on it soon, im just being lazy about it.

[My3girls in reply to MissyAnn68]

I can understand not wanting to take anymore pills! I use to take 1 pill a day now i take 6 yuck, but i guess what ever keeps us going. Hope u have a Merry Christmas.

[MissyAnn68 in reply to My3girls]

Exactly! 6 here too now.

A very Merry Christmas to you!

[Annienny]

I've had drug-induced diabetes with several drugs, though not faslodex or ibrance. My experience has been with the steroid Decadron (dexamethasone) that I had to take as pre-meds for Gemzar and again for Taxotere and Carboplatin. I would take Metformin (which does have anti-cancer benefits though it's unclear what the mechanism is) and sometimes Invokana, which would flush out the glucose in urine.

Do you have a glucometer so that you can monitor this at home? My endocrinologist wrote a Rx for it so I can track at home in between appointments. Good luck to you!

[My3girls in reply to Annienny]

No i don't have a meter dr. Said it wasn't necessary. She put me on metformin and suppose to do blood work in a month.

[alannananegos]

Yes Ibrance and Letrozole caused my blood sugars to sky rocket. So I'm now on insulin in once daily.