Roll Call for Adjuvant Herceptin....

[lauren]

Who's on it, who's had it, how are you doing (dancing with NED, I hope....)

Had it - finished March 2004. Still on the dance floor. Hoping to be twistin' the night away....and then some....knock wood, etc....

[JoJo]

Hey lauren, you got my attention. I didn't know that we could have Herceptin before surgery?... Did you ever have surgery at all? I assume you're early stage, huh?

Keep your jug goin', lauren! ;-)

[lauren]

I think, actually, most people are getting herceptin either in the metastatic setting OR in the post-surgery (adjuvant) setting. I had a double mastectomy, thank you very much ;-)

I had multi-focal disease in one breast (three tumors, all of them invisible to a mammogram, and only two of them visible on ultrasound, thank God for the other two, right?) and asked for the double mast. I had immmediate reconstruction with saline implants (one step, no expanders). I then had AC followed by taxotere and herceptin, followed by herceptin alone for a year. Three week cycles. Also had radiation, at my request, because I had two, possibly three, nodes positive.

I went into menopause immediately after starting the AC and had my ovaries removed to complete the job in June of last year. Have been on Arimidex ever since.

That's me...hope you are doing well!!!

[vinnie]

Lauren,

Did you have taxotere and herceptin on the three week cycle and then herceptin every three weeks after that? Were you part of the BCIRG 006 trial or was this off-protocol?

Vinnie

[lauren]

Hi Vinnie,

I had herceptin plus taxotere for six weeks every single week, and then my doctor switched me to every three weeks for the remaining two cycles and for the herceptin year. The reason was that I hated the weekly drips so much - they bloated me terribly and I felt more fatigue and muscle aches than I wanted to. My doctor did not see any loss in efficacy by reason of switching to tri-weekly instead of weekly. The one downside: my hair fell out again. It had been growing back in on the weekly drips. But the three-week dosage was a bigger attack on my follicles, and my hair fell out again...

I was off study, if you haven't figured that out by now...

lauren

[vinnie]

Thank lauren. Our onc is next suggesting 3 weeks of 35 mg/m2 taxotere weekly with herceptin and then 1 week off. He wants to do four cycles like this.

We are trying to decide if we should add a platinum salt based on all the readings I have done in a metastatic setting. I am not sure this is safe in an adjuvant setting after doing dose dense AC. Did you consider this?

[lauren]

It was not offered to me. It was one arm of the herceptin study. I wanted to push for herceptin, but I was not interested in pushing for other chemo agents. I kind of wish I did now, but that being said, I am feeling great and happy with the treatments I chose!