Need help understanding Her2 - scared
 

Dear all. My wife who is 36 was just diagnosed with Her2 positive breast cancer. I think grade 3. She is ER - and PR -. 1 lymph node positive. PET scan showed no other areas.

She started chem taxol, carboplatin, herceptin and pertuzmab. Then she will have surgery and radiotherapy. We are two months in.

I am deeply scared. Whatever I read shows that Her2 is very aggressive and recurrence is high. It also shows that if you are lucky you can manage to fend of Her2 for maybe 10-20 years but prognosis beyond that is very poor.

I don't know how/what to think at the moment. Can someone enlighten me please of what I am dealing with. Do I really need to prepare myself for the worst and just enjoy the time we have.

Re: Need help understanding Her2 - scared
 

Those poor stats are old. Herceptin was a huge game changer and the Perjeta, which is even newer ups the game. Many on this regime have a complete clinical response when they have their surgery after chemo is complete. I know you are both scared and will be on pins and needles for awhile but this is normal.

I was 45 when diagnosed and there was no Herceptin for me. After chemo and radiation, it was available so I got Herceptin alone. Althoigh it works alone, statistics are much better when the first doses are combined with chemo. But I am still here at 10 and a half years.

The beginning is the worst time but you will see it will all be well.

Re: Need help understanding Her2 - scared
 

Becky is right. Those stats are old and do not reflect the impact of the newer therapies like Herceptin and Perjeta. Having HER2 breast cancer in the past had one of the worst prognosis. However, that has changed.

I was diagnosed at stage 3C (the only higher stage is 4) in Aug 2013. I responded well to treatment and have no evidence of disease. I'm doing great and so are a lot of other women who had the same initial diagnosis.

One thing that I have found when I want to search the internet for information on this disease is to use Google Scholar. If you limit your searching to this, you will know that the information comes from a reliable source.

Take Care

Re: Need help understanding Her2 - scared
 

I think what he may have found was a fairly recent study of very early stage women who did not receive Herceptin. The stats were dismal, and I'm hard put to understand why the various synopses were written with so little clarity, because they made it seem like we all were doomed.

Frankly, if I had to get breast cancer, I'm thankful that it was HER2+ at a time when we have more options than any other subtype. I fully expect to live a long time, even if I experience progression at some point in the future.

Re: Need help understanding Her2 - scared
 

Many thanks all. I am so grateful to your response.

You are right. We are right at the beginning hence the fear. I think the thing that scared me the most was that I saw on message boards that in some cases even after taking Herceptin mico mets/mets returned.

May I ask, other than the the treatment my wife is already receiving is there anything else I should look to get? For example I have read about this GP2 vaccine which does not seem to be out yet?