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JillaryJill · 12-26-2013, 07:25 PM

Perjeta just got approved by the FDA...has your doctor mentioned this?..I know your wife already had her surgery, but its worth asking.
I also enrolled in the vaccine trial at Mayo as you can see from my signature. I tolerated the vaccine very well. Many of the the women on the board had the vaccine also. She still has radiation ahead of her...but something you might want to research on her behalf.
The number of nodes is really scary, but many of the women that had chemo prior to surgery, probably had a bunch of positive nodes but Herceptin and the chemo eliminated the cancer in the nodes. I also had many areas of extracapsular spread into the muscle area of my arm...so I was a mess.
My onc at the inception of my treatment said I had less than a 10% chance of recurrence if I tolerated all the treatments. She has a large practice at Rush in Chicago and has been at the forefront of the early Herceptin trials. She treats alot of Her2 patients. I have to admit I did not believe how positive she was, but I just had my check up last week and I told her...I am starting to believe I will be ok. She told me it is "A New Day" for treatment of Her2. She just returned from San Antonio Breast Cancer Conference. She said the positive news about the current Her2 treatments and new ones in the pipeline are incredible.
It's a crappy disease to get...but we are in exciting times from a scientific standpoint.

12-26-2013, 07:25 PM	#4
JillaryJill Senior Member Join Date: Aug 2011 Posts: 271	Re: Hi number of positive nodes Perjeta just got approved by the FDA...has your doctor mentioned this?..I know your wife already had her surgery, but its worth asking. I also enrolled in the vaccine trial at Mayo as you can see from my signature. I tolerated the vaccine very well. Many of the the women on the board had the vaccine also. She still has radiation ahead of her...but something you might want to research on her behalf. The number of nodes is really scary, but many of the women that had chemo prior to surgery, probably had a bunch of positive nodes but Herceptin and the chemo eliminated the cancer in the nodes. I also had many areas of extracapsular spread into the muscle area of my arm...so I was a mess. My onc at the inception of my treatment said I had less than a 10% chance of recurrence if I tolerated all the treatments. She has a large practice at Rush in Chicago and has been at the forefront of the early Herceptin trials. She treats alot of Her2 patients. I have to admit I did not believe how positive she was, but I just had my check up last week and I told her...I am starting to believe I will be ok. She told me it is "A New Day" for treatment of Her2. She just returned from San Antonio Breast Cancer Conference. She said the positive news about the current Her2 treatments and new ones in the pipeline are incredible. It's a crappy disease to get...but we are in exciting times from a scientific standpoint. __________________ DX November 2010 Brain MRI, CT of lung, liver, bone, all clear Double Mastectomy w/expanders December 1, 2010 ER- PR- Her2+++, grade 3, 12 positive nodes out of 15 Stage IIIc Started TCH/Chemo December 31, 2010 6 rounds TCH Herceptin every 3 weeks for a year 33 rounds of TomoTube radiation, to chest wall, neck, skin and lymph area September, 2011, MRI to lower spine, hips, DX bulging disk, L4 & L5, pain not from cancer Expanders removed, implants in Dec 1, 2011 Finished Herceptin, December 21, 2011 August 2012, CT of chest and abdomen, all ok Enrolled in MC1136 Phase I Peptide Vaccine Trial at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota March 2013, First Vaccine April 2013, 2nd Vaccine May 2013, 3rd Vaccine June 2013, 4th Vaccine July 2013, 5th Vaccine August 2013, 6th Vaccine Done! September 2013, Mayo visit, Echo results 68, vaccine did not effect my heart! Blood work normal. January 31, 2013, Mayo visit, Echo normal February 23, 2014, Numb lips on right side, Brain MRI, normal! June, 2015, Finished the trial at Mayo Clinic. Feels good!