Just off the press

[Jean]

New information on chemo

http://www.komen.org/intradoc-cgi/idc_cgi_isapi.dll?IdcService=SS_GET_PAGE&nodeId=328&useSecondary=true&cc_id=36710

Jean

[tousled1]

Interesting article, but still us HER2+, ER/PR- women still have a disadvantage. I don't know what would happen if we didn't have herceptin.

[Lani]

I don't think this article really holds for her2+ patients. It is looking at all breast cancer patients lumped together. I got the original articles and there was no separation out of the her2+ patients.

According to many experts breast cancer is already separating into four different diseases based on their genetic profiles, natural histories and how they respond to treatments. These are normal-like, luminal (A and B have already been subseparated), her2+er- and triple negatives.

When all e+ or all e-s are lumped together, you do get statistics, but they do not mean alot for those whose her2 oncogene places them in an entirely different disease category.

In fact, some researchers think her2+ breast cancer has more in common with her2+ esophageal cancer than with other types of breast cancer!

The bottom line of this article is that those with ER+ tumors have cancers which are generally less agressive and presumedly divide less frequently, making chemo less effective, as chemo "poisons" the most rapidly dividing cells more than the less rapidly dividing cells.


But a her2+ breast cancer ER+ or not, with a high Ki67 may be more sensitive to chemo than one with a low Ki67. They may also be less sensitive to antihormonal treatments for all the reasons we have discussed before(and probably more we don't yet know)