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Small study (N=20) on continuing Herceptin after brain mets
"Clinical Utility of Continuing Trastuzumab Beyond Brain Progression in HER-2-Positive Metastatic Breast Cancer", Letter to the Editor, The Oncologist 2007;12:1467-1471.
<http://tinyurl.com/3cjx6l>
It's brief conclusion was that, for this small sample, the 10 patients who continued on Herceptin AFTER progression of brain mets had a significantly higher overall survival time from dx of CNS metastasis - and this was not correlated with better control of CNS disease (there was no difference in time to next brain mets progression between the continuing-Herceptin and discontinuing-Herceptin groups). The authors suggest "the survival advantage may be an exclusive function of sustained antitumor activity obtained by trastuzumab at extracranial sites."
I think that this small study may support retaining Herceptin as part of the tx regimen AFTER bcmets brain mets progression, as long as no damaging side effects of the Herceptin (such as low LVEF) are detected.
Sandy in Silicon Valley
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