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I have to keep asking until I understand, so thanks for your patience.
The ability of cancer cells to mutate, then, is why we don't want to "use up" the arsenal too soon...
But when my onc recommended Adriamycin for my first treatment that was exactly MY argument -- i.e., since so many stage I's would never have recurrence without anything but surgery, and if one adds the benefits of radiation to that, and then add any SERM or AI if applicable, why not "save" chemo for the remote possibility of recurrence? The standard response I got was that it was better to be proactive with the chemo because I was HER2+++ and HER2 responds well to Adriamycin.
And now that it has been demonstrated that HER2 responds so well to combination chemo/Herceptin for a fair percentage of those who are strongly HER2 positive, it seems like that would make at LEAST as much sense as for Stage 1 HER2's who are NED to have access to the combo as using up the "biggest gun" in the first place and affecting the immune system and to some degree all cells.
???
A.A.
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