how aggessive can we go?

[Patty H]

I've been at this for 4 years now. My Dr. says I'm past the point of a cure and we are working on containment and quality of life. Since my re-ocurrence I have taken Navelbine (this is my third time) taxotere+carboplatin and herceptin and xeloda+herceptin. I have good quality of life so I shouldn't be complaining. This last week is the first time ever that my blood count was too low to take my navelbine. The other two times I took it, I took two weeks on and one week off. Now I have to go to two weeks on and two weeks off. I was just wondering if there is any cons or pro's to treating this more agressive instead of just trying to contain it. Is there something out there more agressive then what I've taken? I'm tired of this cat and mouse game, I'd like to really give this cancer a big zapp! I am going to talk to my Dr. this next Friday and see what he says. Anybody else's Dr, treat their cancer this way, containment? Patty H

[Steph N]

Hi Patty -
Can you give some more info on the pathology? Is it the same each time it comes back or does the tumor mutate? Has this been checked out?
My med onc is the kind who tries to go after a remission even with recurrences. It worked for me. It was hard, but I am NED now for 2 years and 3 months, maintained on Herceptin and Zometa.

[celina]

Patty,
I can relate somewhat to your frustration. My feeling is that my sister is also being treated more "pallatively" then agressively. I know they want to maintain a certain quality of life, but heck, I'm still waiting for the day she's NED. The doc never says so, but I get the impression that he is simply trying to keep the cancer from spreading any further. When we approach the subject of possible Gammaknife, he always replies with the same sort of statement: "the liver is the biggest concern, let's concentrate on that".