[Lani]

there is a very small minority of cells which like to lay dormant which are responsible for recurrences and they seem to have the appearance of triple negative bc often. Some progenitor cells (daughter cells of the stem cells, but not yet fully differentiated--those w determined fate that cannot be changed and very defined characteristics--may be her2+ or there may perhaps be some stem cells that are her2+

It is a shame noone tested your serum her2 when they failed to biopsy your mets, as that may have given you an answer.

Anyway, your case proves that the answer is not cut and dry for many reasons, some of which have been theorized, many of which having not yet been theorized...one is that herceptin helps those with excess her family ligand like heregulin, one is that her2 testing misses some her2+ for multiple reasons, one is that you have a her2 mutation which the testing doesn't pick up, among others...

Please keep telling your story as I hope it might give some researchers an idea which might unravelling this incredible puzzle.

I, like you, can't see the reason not to give one or two courses and a followup PET or other scan to patients with confusing tumor profiles--the answer will become clear quickly (either it helps or it doesn't), the cost shouldn't be much more than a course of the wrong chemo (which can make you sick requiring lots more expensive care) and even if the effect doesn't last(which I SINCERELY PRAY it does) it teaches everyone something which may advance our understanding of the disease and hopefully paves the way for better treatments, it also gives you an indication that maybe what you need is just to try adding different things to herceptin to keep your quality of life while this progress occurs.

Congratulations, thanks for posting, and continued health!