update on me

[Julie2]

As some of you may remember I was diagnosed with recurence to mediastinal nodes in Aug 2007. I took Navelbine and Herceptin for 3 months and the mets disappeared. Actually in 4 weeks they almost diappeared but we continued for another 2 months. Then I had PET/CTscan for every two months to followup. My Nov 2007 scan showed NED and Jan 2008 scan showed very slight PET uptake in the same mediastinal nodes and March scan showed almost the same results as Jan. There is 6mm increase in one of the nodes since Nov 2007.
I have been continuing on just Herceptin since Nov. My Her2serum has been increasing since last month. I am taking it every month to understand better. It was stable around 7.5 till Feb and in March and April it became 9.4 and 10.9.

I have to decide now what is the next step. Have scan after two weeks.
I am confused what to do. I don't want to use up all my options, at the same time I don't want it to spread.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks,
Julie

[StephN]

Dear Julie -
Glad to see that the HER2 serum test is following what the scans say. But sorry the numbers are going up! http://her2support.org/vbulletin/images/icons/icon9.gif

It seems that the Herceptin has been doing its job to slow down the cancer, but, as you know, we often need to add another bullet to the gun.

Is the the tras-DM1 trial open near you? Look that up on the Clinical Trials forum and you will see that there are some good results with that. Or look at a way to shut down another HER pathway.

You could also try Xeloda (pill form), which has good synergy with Herceptin.

Does your med onc have a suggestion?

[Sheila]

Julie
Nodes can be a pain in the a**, that said, sounds like you need a little boost added to the Herceptin. I know I have had Xeloda and Taxol/Avastin....both with the Herceptin...everytime I go off, the nodes come back and rear their ugly head...I am on a Taxol vacation right now for 6 weeks, then back on it again to keep the nodes in line.

[Colleen007]

I also had uptake in my mediastinum. Went on Navelbine and it disappeared. Went off of Navelbine and it came back to the same place. I went back on Navelbine and the cancer went away again (and has remained that way). Any reason why you can't try Navelbine again??

[Julie2]

My onc suggests Navelbine and she says if we discontinue Navelbine we have to take off Navelbine from the list. I always had fever for two days on a weekly schedule with Navelbine. When I was on it, I really wanted to get over with it as quickly as possible. I am reallly hoping for some non-chemo option to keep this under control.

Julie