['lizbeth]

We have lots of "Her2 Heroes" out there. He's one of the first, and most visible of our heroes. He was determined to get a treatment out for what was a terrible diagnosis at the time.

Thanks to him, and others, we have a treatment option: Herceptin. Prior to this being diagnosed with ER-, PR-, Her2+++ had some grim statistics.

As you will find with more reading the theory behind Herceptin that the original theory was the more highly expressed in receptors, the more effective Herceptin would be. I suspect this is why the cutoff was at Her2+++, and the low expressors were, unfortnately, left out of the original clinical trials.

Many times it difficult to let go of a belief, and the premise that higher expression of her2 was the key to stopping this disease persisted.

But, luckily for us, the discovery of the Her2 receptor was a significant finding that the cancer industry could focus on. When it was discovered that the original theory that focused on overexpression of Her2 being the sole reason for the growth of our cancer was a false premise, money poured into research for us.

Now some things were known, such as the ability of the Her2 receptor to dimerize (connect) with Her1 (EGFR), Her3, and Her4. Her2 was really a social butterfly and could connect up with any of the others. (Her1) EGFR could only hook up with Her1, Her3 to Her3, and Her4 to Her4.

Tykerb was the next targeted therapy with FDA approval for Her2 breast cancer, and I posted recently about how it works.

Perjeta is a recent approval of target therapy, and TDM1 (Kadcyla) is our most recent.

I truly believe TDM1 is a significant step toward better Western medicine treatments in cancer.

Now, as Lani (our unofficial board scientist) points out there have been many pathways discovered that the cancer uses to survive. She used the puppy example. I think we can all related to cancer - if someone is trying to take us out, we are going to do whatever is necessary to survive. So if someone blocks the Her2 pathways, we are simply going to find another path to walk on. Therefore, the enthusiasm and ongoing research to find new treatments to block these paths. I will leave questions in this area to Lani, as it is her expertise.

I, personally, want to see more treatments available and enthusiastically, and maybe a little too bluntly, try and steer everyone to a clinical trial. After being a cancer survivor, and a clincial trial participant, I've learned the system. If you go to most oncologists they can only offer standard of care. This is because of past mishaps, the ability to get approved for a clinical trial at one location is highly regulated. So many of the clinical trials are located at large cancer centers and teaching hospitals who have the experienced staff and the resources in place. Now, this is done by the FDA to protect us, the patient. But it makes it extremely difficult for enrollment into the trial. I had to travel from San Diego to San Antonio to participate in one of my trials.

So, if I come across more information from our Her2 Heroes, I'll post it. So we can know some of the important people who are working to keep us well.