In Layman\'s Terms:

[lauren]

Joe, please step in if you disagree with what I am about to say:

This study shows that WITHIN THE GROUP OF THIRTY-FIVE (35) WOMEN WHO HAD ADVANCED METASTATIC BREAST CANCER AND WHO ALSO WERE HER2NEU POSITIVE BASED ON FISH, taxotere ALONE had a better result than Adria ALONE.

THIRTY-FIVE WOMEN, GUYS. 35. ARE YOU GOING TO DRAW CONCLUSIONS BASED ON 35 WOMEN IN A 176-WOMAN STUDY? All this study tells me is that in a VERY SMALL sample of METASTATIC patients, who may or may NOT have been treated with Adria in the adjuvant setting previously, there was a benefit to receiving taxotere alone over adria alone.

Is that really a surprise in the metastatic setting? I mean, how many metastatic patients actually are given adria anyway?

People, we have to be very careful about drawing conclusions based on the studies we come across in our internet research. For a study to be useful, truly useful, it must have a LARGE population being studied, and if you are to apply the results to YOU, you need to factor in whether the setting was adjuvant or metastatic.

I am here to help, not to diss. I hate to see people freaking out thinking that adriamyicin isn't any good when their doctors gave it to them. There just isn't a sound basis for that conclusion out there. There is suggestion that taxanes may be more helpful IN A VACUUM. But if you were diagnosed today, would you say NO to adria and take a taxane alone (in the ADJUVANT setting)?

I didnt think so.

lauren

[Lyn]

I have to say this, as I sit at my computer after another weekly dose of my triple chemo number 21 today,high and wide awake on steroids, I have been doing treatment non stop since 1998, I have to ask what stage are you and how much experience have you had with the chemo drugs you are commenting about, the ladies here have had first hand experience and yet you continue to quote your research in a twisted negative manner trying to bring all the ladies down so they don't even want to post the questions because you jump in with your theory and try to drag them down to make them feel like an idiot to even ask. I had the big "A" drug you are talking about in 1998 and then CMF, Taxotere after a reoccurence, after I finished the Taxotere one month later I had another reoccurence so since then I have had radiation too many to remember, Xeloda, Aromasin, Herceptin about 3 years now, Navelbine, Carboplatin, and Taxol and still chasing this disease, by the way I should have been dead by 2000, so there is no rhyme or reason to this disease or its treatment, just like trying to mix the perfect paint colour you have to get the tints right, and experience and action speak more than words, so take a step back and do your apprenticeship along with the rest of us, listen, learn and don't judge there comments, I haven't stayed alive this long by accident, it is thanks to this site and all of the positive and informative informaiton, and yes we do like to ask questions over and over again because per chance someone who has never posted before needs to know and it is possible we can be a life saver, my onc listens to me and I continually update him info from this site and he is managing to save other lives as well. There I have said it now.

Big Hugs from Lyn

[lauren]

i don't know what you are even talking about. i wish you the very best, you and everyone else here. my agenda, if i have one at all, is to NOT freak people out. a lot of stuff has been brewing around here giving adriamycin a bad name. it is STILL the drug of choice for her2neu positive women in the ADJUVANT setting. i don't know anything about the metastatic setting. all i know is that when research that says that a drug is BAD is quoted, the STUDY should be ANALYZED for whether or not it is a good study. A study that showed the way adria reacted among 35 patients is simply not worth squat. Period. End of story. What i hoped was to debunk the MYTH that adria is bad, and THEREFORE make all of the MANY women who have taken adria in the adjuvant setting feel GOOD about their treatment.

i don't pretend to be a doctor. i simply AM a very analytical person. and personally, i am someone who does not take it lightly when the drug that made my hair fall out and made me sick for 12 weeks of my life is said to CAUSE my cancer to spread. when someone says that, i am going to look into it, and look into it HARD. and when i see a stupid study that is completely TRASH because it studied a sample of 35 women, i am going to CALL it as i see it.

stupid study. that's all i am saying.