Laura
11-25-2006, 12:04 PM
Hello all
I was diagnosed in Mar 06 er-/pr-, her2+++ with mets to bone. T/C/H and Zometa brought me to complete response in 3 or 4 months. I struggled with a decision to have bilateral mastectomies after I was told that I had a complete response, my doctors said it was not stardard protocol for stage iv. I started to have breast changes, showing up as diffused haziness on mris and ultrasounds. I decided to be done with the weird tests and have the mastectomies. Turns out the tumor was back, 9cm. However, pathology now shows that it is er+ pr. My periods, which were normally very irregular (60-120 days apart), started to be every 28 days during and after chemo. Estrogen was running wild in my body. Isn't it plausible that if I would have had my ovaries suppressed and Tamoxifen the primary wouldn't have come back? My oncologists are talking about chemo again and that I might have become resistant to herceptin. They would like to get me on Lapatinib. I wanted to get at least a few years out of Herceptin before I used Lapatinib. Does anyone have any ideas on what I should do? I may be jumping the gun because not all of the pathology is in yet. But I want to be prepared. I had an easy time with chemo the first time through... I know I can handle it again, but I don't want to use everything up so quickly.<O:p
Laura<O:p></O:p>
diagnosed stage iv 3/06 age 37 (4 children ages 12, 9, 5, 4)
her2+++, er-/pr-
mets to bone (bone biopsy her2+++ (IHC), her2- (FISH), er-/pr-)
T/C/H 4/06-8/06
complete remission
continue Herceptin every 3 weeks<O:p</O:p
weird breast changes
11/06 bilateral mastectomies<O:p</O:p
9cm mass removed her2? (waiting for path), er+/pr-<O:p</O:p<O:p
I was diagnosed in Mar 06 er-/pr-, her2+++ with mets to bone. T/C/H and Zometa brought me to complete response in 3 or 4 months. I struggled with a decision to have bilateral mastectomies after I was told that I had a complete response, my doctors said it was not stardard protocol for stage iv. I started to have breast changes, showing up as diffused haziness on mris and ultrasounds. I decided to be done with the weird tests and have the mastectomies. Turns out the tumor was back, 9cm. However, pathology now shows that it is er+ pr. My periods, which were normally very irregular (60-120 days apart), started to be every 28 days during and after chemo. Estrogen was running wild in my body. Isn't it plausible that if I would have had my ovaries suppressed and Tamoxifen the primary wouldn't have come back? My oncologists are talking about chemo again and that I might have become resistant to herceptin. They would like to get me on Lapatinib. I wanted to get at least a few years out of Herceptin before I used Lapatinib. Does anyone have any ideas on what I should do? I may be jumping the gun because not all of the pathology is in yet. But I want to be prepared. I had an easy time with chemo the first time through... I know I can handle it again, but I don't want to use everything up so quickly.<O:p
Laura<O:p></O:p>
diagnosed stage iv 3/06 age 37 (4 children ages 12, 9, 5, 4)
her2+++, er-/pr-
mets to bone (bone biopsy her2+++ (IHC), her2- (FISH), er-/pr-)
T/C/H 4/06-8/06
complete remission
continue Herceptin every 3 weeks<O:p</O:p
weird breast changes
11/06 bilateral mastectomies<O:p</O:p
9cm mass removed her2? (waiting for path), er+/pr-<O:p</O:p<O:p