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Re: Asked why I am stage IV again - clearing up??
Linn,
While I was trying to find a definitive answer about the treatment of a recurrence of HER2 positive breast cancer, I happened upon this page:
http://secondopinion-tv.org/episode/...cer-recurrence
I think the answer to at least one of your questions may be here.
Quote:
Recurrence and metastasis are not the same thing. If you've had a local recurrence, when the cancer remains confined to your breast, your prognosis is not necessarily any worse than it was the first time.
If breast cancer does recur or a new primary cancer is found, oncologists may be able to approach treatment with the assumption that it's a curable situation. However, in many circumstances oncologists may have to approach treatment as they would a chronic disease; that is, a disease that is not curable but controllable. In either situation, breast cancer recurrence can be successfully treated or managed.
[...]
Breast cancer recurrence can be local (confined to the breast where it started, or the skin and tissues where the breast was), regional (spread to nearby lymph nodes), or metastatic (spread to other parts of the body that are not near the breast, such as bones, the brain, liver, and lungs). [emphasis supplied]
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Also see Key Point 2 which is a little later in the page.
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2/6/09 Core needle biopsy: negative; Mammos through 2010: no change
3/30/11 Pea-sized lump in left breast at site of prior biopsy; mammo negative, sonogram not so much
4/14/11 Core needle biopsy: negative for cancer
5/18/11 Excisional biopsy 1.2 cm tumor, LVI, positive margin; ER+60%,PR+20%,HER2/CEP17 5
6/15/11 BMX: Left DCIS & LH; Right ADH; SNB: 2/3 nodes: 1.4 cm and 1 mm; ALND L1&2: 0/10; Stage IIa, Grade 3
7/14/11 CT/Bone scans NED; MUGA 66%
7/19/11 Biweekly dd AC w/Neulasta; done 8/30/11
9/13/11 Transfusion (Hemoglobin 8.6); MUGA 64%
9/20/11 Start Taxol + Herceptin; Taxol done 12/6/2011; continue Herceptin until 9/4/2012
12/27/11 Radiation - 6 weeks; 2/27/2012 - DONE! Yayyyy!
2/29/12 Start Tamoxifen 20 mg/day; continue until 2/28/17
5/16/12 Start five-years Metformin trial
6/19/12 MUGA 61%
8/21/12 Brain MRI NED (head still hurts, brain still fogged)
9/4/12 Herceptin done!
9/6/12 Port out!
7/11/13 Aricept 5mg for cognitive impairment; increased to 10mg as of 8/23/13; back to 5mg 12/2013
5/2014 Add Namenda 7mg
9/2014 Stop Aricept and Namenda; Neuropsychological evaluation
10/24/14 Start cognitive rehabilitation therapy
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