Adjuvant herceptin 6 months vs 12 months?
 

Hi all
I am asking this question for a friend who is having some trouble accessing the board.

My friend is currently undergoing adjuvant therapy and is taking herceptin 3 weekly. She is interested in the benefits of 12 months vs 6 months - we cannot find any published data yet. Does anyone here know of the perceived benefit when continuing for the 12 months over 6 months? Would node status and tumor size be a factor to consider?

Hoping someone has some information for my friend.
Thanks,
Amanda

Re: Adjuvant herceptin 6 months vs 12 months?
 

Bumping this up - anyone?

Re: Adjuvant herceptin 6 months vs 12 months?
 

There is no data to say anything since one year is standard of care and who would enter a trial where they might only get 6 months not knowing if it is adequate or not?

One thing that has been asked of the breast cancer guru rock star doctors is to track and report what has happened (recurrence wise etc) from women who had to stop Herceptin early because of heart problems (and could never resume). There is a population of women with that criteria. Those women could be compared to women who had the standard year. If things look good, then a trial could be initiated where at least the women getting the 6 months would feel secure.

Personally, I believe that less Herceptin would work just as well as a year but there is no data to say so except for the FinHer study where women were given neo-adjuvant chemo with 9 weeks of Herceptin and that worked well.

Right now - no data except for the FinHer Study

Re: Adjuvant herceptin 6 months vs 12 months?
 

Thanks Becky - there seems to be a trial - UK based I think called Persephone - no results published yet but I believe it has finished recruiting and results are due soon - I thought someone may have some inside knowledge. I guess with all of these trials to get a decent results takes time especially when we are looking at recurrence rates - we want to be looking at 5 years+ and it is just too soon to have those results that are meaningful yet.

If you are self funding herceptin though - 6vs 12 months is a considerable saving financially but you would want some assurance that the overall benefit was similar.

I agree - it would be good to have follow up off those who have stopped herceptin under 12 months to see what recurrence rates are like.
Thanks for your response.
Amanda x