[alicecallahan]

my oncologist is conservative as well, made me get MUGAs every 4 months, and they continued to go down and he took me off herceptin when when my E.F. was almost at 50; this was about 2 treatments short of a year; i begged him to let me have a little more; he said no way, not combined with the muga scan the fact that only stage 4 patients are allowed to be on it; (I am 3) One dear friend i met at support group 2 years ago who had similar situation to me and similar treatment protocol, although not identical, went off herceptin after a year and 3 months later had 2 small lesions on her liver after being stage 2 and NED for 2 years prior........so i feel your anxiety, believe me !! However, I also know someone battling mets for 3 years whose doctor got, I believe, lax in giving her Muga scans, and at age 46 she had heart failure due to the herceptin and then had to go on heart meds.....so although it seems that docs are not supposed to authorize the herceptin for longer than a year unless metastatic, i believe there may be some out there willing to give it a shot as long as the MUGA is strong........