Are we being aggressive enough?

[Greg]

Hello to all of you,

I have been "lurking" here and reading many of your posts since my wife was diagnosed with BC in January. She is 52, has high blood pressure, taking medication but it still remains high and has a tendency to be allergic to many drugs including penicillin and related antibiotics, cipro, ace inhibitors, avapro, iodine/potassium dyes, etc.

She had a lumpectomy in early February, margins clear, 2 sentinel nodes removed, both clear, Stage 1, 1.5 cm tumor, 40% DISC, 60% invasive, Grade 3, ER+ and PR+, HER2+++, OncotypeDX score 38 (26 with hormonal therapy), ER Score = 9.4, PR Score = 7.9, HER2 Score = 11.3.

Our first onc recommended the TCH regimen 6x to be followed by 7 weeks of rad, a year of herceptin and then hormonal therapy for 5 years. My wife nearly had a nervous breakdown worrying about the chemo, particularly the carboplatin. We sought a second opinion at a leading research institution in Seattle. They do not use the TCH regimen and instead recommend taxol and herceptin each week for 12 weeks, followed by the rad, herceptin for a year and hormonal therapy. These guys really seem to know their stuff and feel the carboplatin really adds nothing and that early stage BC is being over treated. My wife is much relieved that she won't have to do the carboplatin and that since it is 12 weeks at a lower dosage she doesn't fear the side effects nearly as much.

My worry is that perhaps this treatment is not aggressive enough given that her cancer is grade 3 and Her2+. I would be very interested in your thoughts. I'm very sorry this turned out to be such a long post. Thank you all very much.