[Lani]

At San Antonio several papers were given on how the newly approved Denosumab is more effective in dealing with painful bone mets (eg your spine) than Zoledronic acid.

Were you taking Herceptin around the time you had your arm mets biopsied?

Were they only teted by IHC rather than FISH?

THeoretically, if you get your herceptin near the time you have the biopsy and only have it tested by IHC, the herceptin can sit on the her2 receptor blocking the monoclonal antibody they use for IHC testing from getting to it and giving you a false negative result. If you only had IHC testing and not that long after you had herceptin, perhaps it would be reasonable to seek out whether the pathologists agree with the above reasoning and whether it seems reasonable to them to retest it using FISH testing. FISH testing is usually not done unless the her2 IHC testing comes back as ++ or +++

Food for thought!