NBCC has an analysis of the FinHER trial at:
http://www.natlbcc.org/bin/index.asp...btnid=&depid=3
The trial looked at two different chemo's (taxotere vs. navelbine) given 3x q3weeks, followed by FEC 3x q3weeks. There was an arm that gave the Herceptin with the first chemo (navelbine or taxotere) to HER2+ women.
I'll copy the most relevant paragraph here but if you go to the website there's an interesting discussion of the questions that remain both about duration and sequencing.
"Among HER2-positive patients, women who took Herceptin in addition to either Taxotere or Navelbine and chemotherapy experienced a 58% reduction in risk of recurrence or death compared to those not on Herceptin (10.4% versus 23.3%, or a12.9% absolute difference), and a 71% reduction in metastasis (7.0% versus 22.4%, or a 15.4% absolute difference). There was no observed difference in overall survival between these two groups. Women taking Herceptin did not experience significantly more cardiac events than those not on Herceptin."
I can't find much more about this study, referenced in a NZ article but talking about George Sledge so I assume it's a US study:<O
</O
"The data on the 227 patients in the Sledge study is for 5 years of follow-up and it showed no difference in survival rates between those who received 10 weeks of concurrent treatment with Herceptin and those who received it concurrently for 52 weeks."
<O</O
Several hits in my small google search talked about frustrations with trying to look at a shorter duration of Herceptin because Roche/Genentech had no interest in supporting such studie$$$.
Debbie Laxague