HER2 Support Group Forums - JUST FOR FUN...do any of you HER-2 positive gals...

First, thank the more than 30 of you who kindly indulged me with excellent responses to my research on the simian line...for those of the old-timers who know me...smile...you were quite correct to suspect that it may (or may not) have something to do with her-2 mediated disease.

I became fascinated with the concept while reading a non-fiction book on the evolution of the human hand and the various comparisons to the hands of other primates and other non-handed animals. Most of the other primates most closely related to humans have simian lines. Most modern humans, do not.

Humans of Asian descent, including "gypsies" (who migrated out of the India/Tibet/China region give or take about 11,000 years ago would be considered of Asian Decent as would many modern day Persians, various Eastern Europeans, especially Romanians and Hungarians and Poles, and several other populations decended from Asia or who were heavily invaded by the the Huns --have higher incidences of simian lines than the general population. Modern Asians today have the highest concentration of simian lines, about 13 % of the population versus around 3 to 4 % for caucasions. Most modern Asians, today, though, it is believed have LOWER incidences of breast cancer than other populations, but it also may be that we just don't have access to the real numbers, say in China or North Korea, or remote parts of India, or war-torn Afghanistan.

However, there are some studies that indicate folks from some of these ancient Asia-migrated areas have breast cancer rates higher than other populations. Many of these folks have higher incidences of her-2 mediated breast cancer than other folks, especially descendents from eastern Europe.

The line can apparently be genetically passed on, as a trait, like blue eyes or red hair, and is usually passed on as a TRUE simian line as it is in my family: My mother has one on her left hand, I have one on my left hand and my youngest sister has one on her left hand. To have 3 people in one room all possessing simian lines at any given time is exceedingly rare. Now that you know what a Simian line is, you will start looking for them and understand what I mean. One of the reasons I didn't immediately say what a simian line was is that most likely if you didn't know what it is...you most likely would not have one...tease...tease...smile...because if you have it, it is sufficiently rare that most likely over your life, someone would have pointed it out to you as happened to me when my Korean friend noted it, with surprise--as I was not obviously Asian, one day years ago.

Alternatively, especially in cases of "partial" simian lines or near true simian lines, hormone levels in the womb may be responsible, most particularly, high levels of testosterone. This is the same phenomenon, varying hormonal environment of the womb, that causes the fingerprints of even IDENTICAL twins to be slightly different as the final "imprinting" --if you will --of the lines occurs during gestation and are not set in stone as ordinary genetic traits generally are (again, things like Blue eyes, Green eyes, or straight versus curly hair, or type A Rh-negative blood --if found in one identical twin, will equally be found in the other, not so of finger and palm prints).

In the non-fiction book on the subject, folks born with simian lines of any kind, have been correlated by physicians to have more health-related difficulties and more UNUSUAL kinds of health-related difficulties their whole lives, although most tend to live out normal or even LONGER than normal life spans. In the case of my family. my mother (71), myself (43), and my youngest sister (39), all of whom possess strong, clean simian lines that slice through our left palms, have dealt with serious and life-threatening illnesses our whole lives, while ironically, my middle sister (41), who has no such line, is the tower of health in our family.

I remember reading that Tony Blair (who has a simian line on both hands) struggled off and on during his time as Prime Minister with various health issues...hmmmmm...makes one really want to look at Vice President Cheney's hands, no?? smile.

Anyway, other parts of my research had shown a moderate connection with testosterone hitting a female fetus during early parts of gestation and later correlations to ER- PR- her-2 3+ mediated disease.... That made me want to find easy ways to see if any hormonal NEGATIVE gals who were her-2 very positive could have possibly been exposed to testosterone during gestation and the simian line was one tell-tale factor, as well as being left-handed. Some gals on the site who were her-2 positive had also noticed that someone in their extended family had had autism, others schizophrenia, and this can sometimes be connected.

Some of you will remember my work on RH negative blood groups and all of this ties into the same research as the blood type would also define a genetic "type casting" if you will of someone who may be slightly more genetically prone to her-2 mediated disease--although, in my theory, of course, it takes two things, pre-existing genetic vulnerability and surendipitous contact with the offending organism--still unproven, of course--this is only hypothesis still.

I guess my big question now would be to Donna and Sassy. Are you both hormonal negative that is ER- and PR- as I am or do you have some hormonal element to your illness? By any chance do you have RH negative blood types...I am RH negative type A.

And Patricia, I would also be interested to know your hormonal signature and something about the general health of your husband with the two simian lines, like Tony Blairs. Also, is your husband RH negative?

If any one out there, after reading this posting, has her-2 mediated disease and a family member or someone they know with a Simian line, I would be delighted to have you post something to this thread. Every comment is useful. I love the feedback and yes, to many of you who posted just to say, "hi", I too have really missed you all during the past year, a hearty HELLO to each and every one!!!

Godspeed,
Gina