[hutchibk]

MJP - when you click on the Herceptin/Tykerb forum, look towards the top of the page right underneath (Herceptin / Tykerb - Share your experiences or ask questions about Herceptin or Tykerb). There is a blue button that says "NEW THREAD" - click on that and you can start a new thread, titled with any title you think will draw attention to your question...
Hope that helps. YOU ARE NOT USELESS! Geez, don't make me kick your booty...

Anyway - Tykerb does not typically affect your blood count directly when it comes to RBC and WBC, it is typically any chemo that you might take with it that can run down those counts... That said, I have been on Tykerb with the chemo, Xeloda, for 15 months and have strong and normal RBC and WBC. Xeloda does not beat up my blood system at all.

My doc has told me that if we are to get results from PET, CT or MRI that shows anything new in the body or the organs, then we will add Herceptin in with my Tykerb (and I assume I will stay on the Xeloda as well, but maybe not.) I think the direction of thinking these days is that combining the targeted agents (Tykerb/Herceptin and maybe pertuzamab, the new one they are working on) is the possible key to closing all the pathways {especially and including HER1, HER3 and HER4} that HER2 cells use to escape. A combined approach of these targeted agents is suspected to hopefully put HER2 into submission. We are all hoping so. But they have figure out how to combine all three together in a way that our bodies can tolerate... but for now, we have only the first two, Tykerb and Herceptin, so that is what they are trying on some of us who progress beyond Herceptin/Chemo. That combo is showing some promise at this point... but research shows that we probably need a third agent in the combo to seal the deal... And so it goes.

Let us know what your scans say.