Herceptin for Cancer Survivors?

Hi, my name is Jennifer. I was diangnosed with stage III invasive breast cancer dec 03 (HER2 positive). I finished 10 months of treatment exactly a year ago today. I did not receieve herceptin treatments. Wondering...does anyone know if receiving herceptin one year post treatment will improve the likelihood of a recurrence?

Hi Jennifer,

Nobody knows this answer for sure. The HERA trial, however, found that women with 4+ nodes benefited from a year of herceptin after treatment, but they all started within six months of treatment. However, my oncologist was on the HERA trial committee and has advised me to go for it. I am ER-,PR-, 8/19 nodes, 6 FEC (mininal effect)->surgery->4 taxoteres.

On the HERA trial, the benefit depended on a number of factors. Herceptin only benefited women beyond the shadow of a doubt if they had only received an anthracycline (AC or EC, for example), as opposed to an anthracycline and a taxane (taxol or taxotere). Also, post-treatment herceptin clearly benefited hormone-receptor negative women, but the result for hormone-receptor positive women was not statistically significant (it could be a fluke) if they were on a hormonal therapy and many of these women would have been on tamoxifen rather than the better aromatase inhibitors.

So, no answers, just things to think about.