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Nancy L · 05-06-2009, 05:17 PM

Another woman with neck lymph node mets. I am so sorry you haven't something that works for you. I am curious if they tested your biopsy for ER/PR/HER2. I recently had a biopsy for neck mets and Dr. Dennis Slamon (my oncologist at UCLA) wanted the tissue retested for tumor characteristics inorder to prescribe a protocol. Breast cancer tumors can change characterists when they metastasize. I am currently on Herceptin and Tykerb--see below.

Age 57 at diagnosis---Nothing has happened per the book for me.

11/03 Annual mammo-Stanford/normal. Had mammos every year since age 40 with no indication of cancer.
9/04 Left Nipple Inverted--DX/High Grade BC-Stage IIIC 7x5x3cm tumor with 11 of 11 tested lymph nodes positive for metastatic carcinoma with extranodal spread. ER/PR - Her2neu positive by FISH (HER217Z1 ratio of 4.03). Ki-67 staining was 70%

10/04-4/05 Dose Dense---4 AC; 4 Taxotere/Herceptin; 35 rounds of radiation.

5/05-2/09 Herceptin every 3 weeks; My hair never grew back---told this is rare and caused by Taxol drugs. After much mourning, selected hair replacement system (VirtualReality.com)—expensive but I have better hair than before cancer.

7/08 Lost voice—DX paralyzed rt vocal cord. -. It took 7 mo for modern medicine to find the root cause. None of my doctors suspected malignancy because my BC was on the left side/paralyzed vocal cord was on the right side, and my tumor markers never changed. (Told rare place for breast cancer to reoccur and my tumor doesn’t produce the proteins measured by tumor markers---these markers don’t work for everyone---new news to me; all these years I have had a false sense of security).

2/09 Enlarged Neck lymph node finally detected on CT/PET. Surgery to remove tissue done to confirm tumor characteristics. Breast cancer metastatis was finally diagnosed at UCLA. Neck tumor was ER/PR -; Her2neu highly positive by Fish (her217Z1 ratio of 20.2).

3/10 Continuing Herceptin. Prescribed 4 Tykerb daily. After 6 days, massive hives all over body. Tykerb reduced to 3 tablets daily. So far so good. Will get cat/pet soon since tumor markers don’t work for me.

05-06-2009, 05:17 PM	#20
Nancy L Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: La Quinta, Ca Posts: 253	Another woman with neck lymph node mets. I am so sorry you haven't something that works for you. I am curious if they tested your biopsy for ER/PR/HER2. I recently had a biopsy for neck mets and Dr. Dennis Slamon (my oncologist at UCLA) wanted the tissue retested for tumor characteristics inorder to prescribe a protocol. Breast cancer tumors can change characterists when they metastasize. I am currently on Herceptin and Tykerb--see below. Age 57 at diagnosis---Nothing has happened per the book for me. 11/03 Annual mammo-Stanford/normal. Had mammos every year since age 40 with no indication of cancer. 9/04 Left Nipple Inverted--DX/High Grade BC-Stage IIIC 7x5x3cm tumor with 11 of 11 tested lymph nodes positive for metastatic carcinoma with extranodal spread. ER/PR - Her2neu positive by FISH (HER217Z1 ratio of 4.03). Ki-67 staining was 70% 10/04-4/05 Dose Dense---4 AC; 4 Taxotere/Herceptin; 35 rounds of radiation. 5/05-2/09 Herceptin every 3 weeks; My hair never grew back---told this is rare and caused by Taxol drugs. After much mourning, selected hair replacement system (VirtualReality.com)—expensive but I have better hair than before cancer. 7/08 Lost voice—DX paralyzed rt vocal cord. -. It took 7 mo for modern medicine to find the root cause. None of my doctors suspected malignancy because my BC was on the left side/paralyzed vocal cord was on the right side, and my tumor markers never changed. (Told rare place for breast cancer to reoccur and my tumor doesn’t produce the proteins measured by tumor markers---these markers don’t work for everyone---new news to me; all these years I have had a false sense of security). 2/09 Enlarged Neck lymph node finally detected on CT/PET. Surgery to remove tissue done to confirm tumor characteristics. Breast cancer metastatis was finally diagnosed at UCLA. Neck tumor was ER/PR -; Her2neu highly positive by Fish (her217Z1 ratio of 20.2). 3/10 Continuing Herceptin. Prescribed 4 Tykerb daily. After 6 days, massive hives all over body. Tykerb reduced to 3 tablets daily. So far so good. Will get cat/pet soon since tumor markers don’t work for me.