[Petesmom]

Hi Lin,

Three years ago I had a recurrence in the same breast with a previous bc. Like the one before, my tumor was IDC with DCIS and the whole area was 0.7cm. The tumor was Grade 2, ES/PR + but this time it was also HER-2+++ by IHC. My oncologist said no to chemo in order to receive Herceptin because he felt the side effects would outweigh the benefits and that my overall survival chances would not be improved. At that time he said that no one was getting Herceptin without chemo. I have since heard that there are some women out there who are getting Herceptin with out ever having had chemo.
The other thing you mentioned was that the tumor had extensive DCIS . HER-2 is almost always present in DCIS. There are lots of arguments for getting the Herceptin but there are some of us who have not had it. As my onc told me at the time, it is a slam dunk when certain factors are in place such as Her2 status, + lymph nodes, tumor size, grade and etc. For those of us with small tumors in which the only real adverse factor is the HER 2 status, the picture is a bit fuzzier. I am on Arimidex and am 3 years out from my diagnosis. It would be interesting to hear from some of the ladies who might have gotten Herceptin without the chemo. There are a number of individuals on here with small breast cancers who have done chemo and the herceptin. Keep us posted.

Petesmom