Anyone with tumors less than one centimeter?

[Paris]

Having read the latest research from this year's SABC about the high rate of recurrence for very small node negative HER2+ tumors I am thanking God I did herceptin but am wondering if there is any information regarding recurrence rates for patients who had tumors less than 1cm who DID chemo/herceptin. For those of you who haven't heard of the study it showed that for HER2+ tumors less than one cm. the rate of recurrence was 23% compared to er+ HER2- tumors which had a rate of 6%. None of the patients had received chemo or heceptin. Average patient age was 57.

It appears that researchers are just starting to study this small population of breast cancer patients. I have also seen it suggested that researchers don't know how effective herceptin is in this population.

So while I tend to be a very positive person and try to believe I've got this thing beat, reading this study made my heart sink. The study does not split out the patients who were strictly HER2+ (i.e. er-/pr-) nor does it show the recurrence rates for pre-menopausal women who tend to have more aggressive cancers. So my take on it is if you were post menopausal and triple positive the recurrence rate would be 23% without any adjuvant treatment but the rate would have to be higher for pre menopausal er-/pr-/her2+.

While I know I've done everything I could based on what therapy was available at my diagnosis two years ago I feel like I'm losing the grip on my security blanket.

I'm hoping some of you may be able to shed some light on this. Please prove me wrong on this!