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Chelee · 04-10-2010, 05:13 PM

Cal-Gal,
All I can tell you is my personal experience with Herceptin & TMs. When I recurred last Sept. all I could start on was Herceptin since I was going to have surgery on my femur. My markers had been climbing slowly for almost a yr. (Which I now know TMs are very reliable for me.)

After my first loading dose of Herceptin my CA27.29 instantly dropped. I was relieved to see how well Herceptin works for me. The Herceptin kept my TM'ers down quite a bit until I could start on chemo. I have never heard of Herceptin causing TM's to be elevated? In fact when I was first DX a bit over 4 yrs ago I did a complete yr of Herceptin. The only time my markers jumped up once was towards my 5th cycle of TCH which I was told could be tumor flare. (Dying tumor cells.) After that one small jump I finished the entire yr of Herceptin with my CA27.29 staying between 15 & 18...they never moved from that until I recurred. (Which was 3.5 yrs.) Hope this helps?

Chelee

04-10-2010, 05:13 PM	#2
Chelee Senior Member Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Southern, CA Posts: 2,511	Re: Herceptin and CA 27.29 tumor marker Cal-Gal, All I can tell you is my personal experience with Herceptin & TMs. When I recurred last Sept. all I could start on was Herceptin since I was going to have surgery on my femur. My markers had been climbing slowly for almost a yr. (Which I now know TMs are very reliable for me.) After my first loading dose of Herceptin my CA27.29 instantly dropped. I was relieved to see how well Herceptin works for me. The Herceptin kept my TM'ers down quite a bit until I could start on chemo. I have never heard of Herceptin causing TM's to be elevated? In fact when I was first DX a bit over 4 yrs ago I did a complete yr of Herceptin. The only time my markers jumped up once was towards my 5th cycle of TCH which I was told could be tumor flare. (Dying tumor cells.) After that one small jump I finished the entire yr of Herceptin with my CA27.29 staying between 15 & 18...they never moved from that until I recurred. (Which was 3.5 yrs.) Hope this helps? Chelee __________________ DX: 12-20-05 - Stage IIIA, Her2/Neu, 3+++,Er & Pr weakly positive, 5 of 16 pos nodes. Rt. MRM on 1-3-06 -- No Rads due to compromised lungs. Chemo started 2-7-06 -- TCH - - Finished 6-12-06 Finished yr of wkly herceptin 3-19-07 3-15-07 Lt side prophylactic simple mastectomy. -- Ooph 4-05-07 9-21-09 PET/CT "Recurrence" to Rt. axllia, Rt. femur, ilium. Possible Sacrum & liver? Now stage IV. 9-28-09 Loading dose of Herceptin & started Zometa 9-29-09 Power Port Placement 10-24-09 Mass 6.4 x 4.7 cm on Rt. femur head. 11-19-09 RT. Femur surgery - Rod placed 12-7-09 Navelbine added to Herceptin/Zometa. 3-23-10 Ten days of rads to RT femur. Completed. 4-05-10 Quit Navelbine--Herceptin/Zometa alone. 5-4-10 Appt. with Dr. Slamon to see what is next? Waiting on FISH results from femur biopsy. Results to FISH was unsuccessful--this happens less then 2% of the time. 7-7-10 Recurrence to RT axilla again. Back to UCLA for options.