[Emmay]

My sister has been on a new experimental therapy for bc brain mets of CPT-11 (a.k.a. Irinotecan) plus Avastin for 6 weeks (=two infusion sessions, not including yesterday's). Today's MRI showed remarkable improvement: the many large, bright areas from her previous MRI were dramatically diminished, some gone altogether.

She had said that her headaches were lessening noticeably, down to a short, slight twinge every 2-3 days, so we were cautiously hopeful, but were stunned when we reviewed today's scans. We'd never before seen such a large difference after just six weeks. My sister's neuro-oncologist said they are seeing good preliminary results with some other patients as well; it's difficult to know how much of the effect is a result of CPT-11 and how much from Avastin.

My sister's T-lymphocyte blood cell count is down, so yesterday she had an infusion of just Avastin and Herceptin (resuming after Tykerb failed for her); in two weeks she will resume CPT-11 & Avastin at a slightly lower dose, then continue on a 2-week cycle.

I'm happy to report this encouraging news, and will keep this board posted.

Emmay