Er- can turn pos after Herceptin

[Rich66]

Just a reminder to those considered ER- before Herceptin. It may have changed your status and given you more options:

Italian investigators gave trastuzumab to 10 patients with HER2-positive, ER-negative breast cancer. Three of the 10 subsequently had upregulation of ER±, and two of the three were treated with letrozole monotherapy and remained progression free for as long as three years
More:
http://her2support.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=38998
And recurrence/mets alone can change it too.

And..Tamoxifen can work on both ER+ and - as well as synergize with chemos. Tamoxifen might be useful if no way to check status.

[bejuce]

Rich,

Thank you so much for all of your postings. I have been following the boards daily (from my iPhone, what a great tool to have) and, in particular, the recent postings about Tamoxifen synergies and ER-/ER+ changes.

I' slightly ER+ (5%) and some doctors/researchers would consider this ER-. Either way, my oncologist at Stanford put me on Tamoxifen shortly after I finished rads. We're being as aggressive as we can.

Now, I'm taking Tamoxifen together with Herceptin, and if I understand all the recent postings correctly, this can actually be a good thing?

Thank you so much and I wish you and your mom all the best!

[hutchibk]

Yep, my onc just shared this with me last month and that is why he decided to put me back on Aromasin after being off of it for almost 3 years.