Early Stage Breast Cancer and Herceptin????

[RalphIII]

Hey LeahM,

Yes, partly why I wanted to inquire here is because much of the information I've come across is several years old. Since posting, I did speak with a nurse rep at Herceptin in inquiring about their criteria. We are actually meeting the surgeon in a few hours for finals results, btw. Your explanation was very good also in regards to Her2+.

My Dad was a supervisor at a Hospital System for 30+ yrs and we have/had many many close ties there. I'm used to that atmosphere, so it's not entirely a stress issue, though that is a part of it. I'm just one that likes to be informed in every regard but wanted some personal accounts in regards to Herceptin, as I can only get here.

God bless,
Ralph

[Lani]

There is always a gap between guidelines, the most recent literature and practice

Guidelines do not yet cover the quandary as to how small a her2 + tumor should receive herceptin. If you go to the search function on the burgundy bar above and type in small tumors and Lani I am sure I have posted on this (or search pubmed and SABCS and ASCO meeting indexes) Neil Love's audio series often questions leading on oncologists on how they treat "small"her2+ tumors.

That said, I just wanted you to know that if your wife is premenopausal the magnitude of her Ki67 varies with what phase of the menstrual cycle she was in when the biopsy/surgery was done.

Lots of things go into the "cost/risk/benefit" analysis of adjuvant herceptin--including your risk aversion and how you weigh each risk ie, cardiac dysfunction from herceptin(usuallly reversible) vs doing everything possible to guard against recurrence.

Hope this helps