Hormonal / Chemo Combo or Chemo alone?

[jojo]

Hello everybody,

I had been on hormonal therapy (with Herceptin only) for a year & half. Since a new mass has appreared next to my cancerous supraclavicular nodes last month, my onc then has decided to plug out the hormonals and put me on Xeloda alone. She doesn't believe that hormonals & chemo should go together (anti-synergistic).

Of course, I am still on maintenance Herceptin every week indefinitely.

I am really confused because, as you know, my hormonals had been quite successful in keeping my cancer at bay, even for a short time ~6 months each time. They say 6 months at length is very common, anyway, for people with weak hormone positives, like me (ER+ 40% / PR+ 20%).

If the hormonals HAD worked for me, why should my onc take me off the hormonals and prescribe me the Xeloda only? What if the Xeloda (or any other chemo, for that matter) would help on the hormonal aspect of breast cancer (like a part of components)??

I am really very unsettled on this particular topic -- especially when it comes to life-threatening diseases!!! I don't like having this crazy 'limbo' feeling. Actually, I think I am feeling a little bit desperate.

So, if you'd find any resources that supported the chemo/hormonals combo did or did not work together, would you please kindly direct me to them??

Some of you are SO knowledgable that you guys should be MD's or RN's, instead!!! :-) And not to mention your BRILLIANT research skills. I had tried the Google & Yahoo search engines, but I couldn't seem to find any good resources. I had attempted about 3 times on different days, but I just about gave up now.

I have the next appt w/ my onc at the end of Sept, so I would really like to bring printouts if possible, should the combo to be expected successful together.

Thanks in advance ~ JO.

[al from canada]

Hi JOJO,
Here is an article I have posted before about Herceptin and Hormonals:

http://annonc.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/full/14/12/1697

Here is a very technical article about herceptin and tamoxifen and reversing hormonal therapuetic resistance with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (irr-essa and lapatinib

http://147.52.72.117/OR/2002/volume9/number6/1163-1166.pdf

and http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/cgi/cont...bstract/65/1/18 (http://cancerres.aacrjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/65/1/18)

Here is an article from SABCS 2004:

http://www.lumc.edu/Template/luhs/newsrele...?autonumber=960 (http://www.lumc.edu/Template/luhs/newsrelease/reportdetail.cfm?autonumber=960)

Al

[jojo]

Thank you SO much, Al! :-) Will get back to you with any questions or comments, after I check out all these links on Sunday. Good weekend to you & Linda ~ JO.

[Gina]

Hi, JoJo,

Sorry I have been off the site but work stops for no woman..sighh. I want to thank you so much for your very informative posts regarding the her-2 negative blood questions I asked, and I just wanted to remind you to go to the map and look up what is just north of Portugal and Spain..smile... and you will see WHY you have 0 positive blood but your mother 0- (see excerpt cut and pasted below:)

Q17. Are the Basques genetically different from other Europeans?

A17. Apparently, yes. It has long been known that the Basques have the highest proportion of rhesus-negative blood in Europe (25%), and one of the highest percentages of type-O blood (55%). Recently, however, the geneticist Luiga Luca Cavalli-Sforza has completed a gene map of the peoples of Europe, and he finds the Basques to be strikingly different from their neighbors. The genetic boundary between Basques and non-Basques is very sharp on the Spanish side. On the French side, the boundary is more diffuse: it shades off gradually toward the Garonne in the north. These findings are entirely in agreement with what we know of the history of the language.

Q18. Does this mean the Basques are directly descended from the earliest known human inhabitants of Europe, the Cro-Magnon people who occupied western Europe around 35,000 years ago?

A18. Nobody knows. This is possible, but we have no real evidence either way. The only evidence we have is negative: the archeologists can find no evidence for any sudden change in population in the area for thousands of years before the arrival of the Celts and later the Romans in the first millennium BC. Some speculate on a mixed Neandertal ancestory of sorts.

Now, on to more SERIOUS STUFF. Have you and Becky from this site had a chance to thrash out some of the research for the hormonal positive combo with Her-2 and the use of Herceptin. She is very knowledgeable and has helped me learn more about it. As you recall, my niche is MOSTLY ER-PR-Her-2 +++, but from that area, I have very good news about the combo of Xeloda with Herceptin...I have seen RAPID and Excellent regressions of disease on this combo and in your shoes, unless Becky knows something MORE EFFECTIVE, I would not hesitate to give the combo a try. However, it would be so helpful to know WHERE your her-2 markers are. or at least a recent CA 27/29??? If they are high...I would also consider upping your Herceptin dose a bit. If they are nice and steady low, then beef up the hormonal countering stuff, even if you have to change oncs. Still, I actually think the Xeloda with Herceptin WOULD REALLY WORK ON YOU, in particular. We will discuss further. E-mail me at home and I will cut and paste a simple version of my dietary supplemental generic regimen and taylor it a bit for you to boost your immune system and energy levels to help you get through this rough patch. Also, you might want to get with Sandy and find out the best foods for Type O blood...You can email me anytime at GPOPP@Comcast.net. I have read the book she mentions, and also find it to be very accurate in many cases. Please take care, Gina

[joy]

jojo, if you've read my long-winded posts then maybe there is an idea in there for you to toy with. My specialist in denver often, upon progression on anti estrogen treatment, uses estrogen to drown the cells. the receptors physically adapt when we take the estrogen away and they can feed of tiny amounts and begin to grow. So if you give them too much estrogen via artifical or natural means, the cells can't absord it and they starve again. when that runs its course you go back to no estrogen and it really messes the cells up. He calls it a withdrawl approach and has had women respons for as few as 5 months to as long as 22 months with the high dose estrogen approach. My local onc is now sending patients of hers who are canddates to him to assess if this will work. He has, he figures, the most clients in the world that have been treated like this. He can tell me example after example of his long-term survivors on this protocol. He will do chemo of course if necessary, but I'll tell you what, when i go to his office everyone in his waiting room looks vibrant and healthy vs. my local office.

just thoughts for you and lots of big strong hugs!
love, joy