[Christine MH-UK]

There are alot of really bad politics surrounding herceptin in the UK. Non-breast cancer oncologists are basically afraid that it is going to eat up the cancer budget, so they are playing up all the potential problems. For example, they highlight that the possible long-term effects are unknown, even though this is true of just about every recent medicine, including ones that are for much more minor conditions. If it were cheaper, it wouldn't have half the problems. Unfortunately, some of this skepticism has even trickled down to cancer patients (there is at least one who was seriously considering not doing herceptin, even though she was high risk, that's how crazy it has gotten).

I really hope that that M.D. Anderson combo you posted about gets tried out in a bigger trial, since that seems to be both extremely effective and cost effective. Not to mention that it was done with just 24 weeks of treatment. So, less time in treatment for patients, less work for the oncologists and the oncology nurses and less expense for the health service. An all-around winner if it works out it a larger trial.