Onc.said no to Herceptin at appt. today help fast

Dear friends,

Can you please help me fast. Today I had my 3rd round of AC, which means in exactly four weeks I start Taxol, and I am trying with all my stength to get Herceptin added to my treatment. My oncologist told me today that I would not be eligible as she understands it because I am node negative. Kind of the same old "come back when you have a reoccurrence" thing. (Well I don't want to spend my daughters growing up years fighting reoccurrences and cancer thank you) ( My her/2 is 3+). She said that if I could find information about trials involving node negative women it would give her something to go on. One link I found on this board from a study done in London said that not only does HER2 present more aggressively and resistent to Chemo, but it also interferes with Hormone therapy as the HER2 and Estrogen Receptors "cross talk". I am scheduled for tamoxifin, but if the HER2 is going to interefere what is the promise in that?

Desperate in Minneapolis. I either need to provide her with good info (I see her again tomorrow) or find someone who will give me herceptin.

Please help!
Thanks

I am node negative, Stage I, ER+/PR+ and was also originally told I was ineligible to receive Herceptin. I finished A/C on January 7th and finished radiation at the end of March. With the news of last week however, my oncologist agreed to give me Herceptin and I had my first treatment last Friday. Although the North American trial involved node positive patients, the huge International trial does NOT require you to be node positive (the HERA trial) and it released results on April 28th stating that Herceptin was found to be similarly effective in its study. Hope that helps.

-Christine

I hope the information helps Cheryl but it certainly helps me! My oncologist already wants to give it to me so it's not me I'm worried about--it's having ammunition for my insurance company in case they balk.

Thanks!

Cheryl
I was node neg and did not get it 3 yrs ago. After recurrance I got it. Fight for it or change Dr.s.

Hugs
Sheila

I am in the BCIRG 6 trial and am node negative, stage 2a. I was given carboplatin, taxotere and herceptin. Although the results from this trial have not been released, my oncologist emailed me specifically to thank me for participating and let me know that the data looks very promising. I'm thankful I was allowed to participate because when I began with chemo, I really had no idea what it was all about and had to trust my oncologist. Since then I've learned a lot.

Bonnie

Cheryl,

Look back at page 2 on this site's forum. Joe started a thread called IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT. It details the trial which was recently called off because of the tremendous results of early stage BC women on Herceptin. Women on the Herceptin showed a more than 50% less likelihood of recurrences.

Hopefully, the FDA will fasttrack Herceptin for early stage, HER2 pos women like you!

Print this out and show it to your onc. Be glad your doc is willing to learn!

Love and light,

Lisa

Hi Bonnie,

Where are you located and out of what hospital did you participate in your study? Also, how long were you on the herceptin or the h-t-c combo?

Thanks.

I'm in California and the doctor was Linda D. Bosserman in Rancho Cucamonga. She also has an office in Pomona. The trial I was in is now closed but I think they started another one after that. It was an international study but UCLA was a big part of it.

I was on herceptin for a year and the carboplatin/taxotere for 6 cycles. I had my last herceptin treatment the first of January 2005. So far I'm NED.

Let me know if you want any more information.

Bonnie