vlcarr
12-13-2009, 07:22 PM
I'm looking for anyone who did the clinical trial I did for newly diagnosed women with HER2 - Herceptin/Tykerb.
The purpose of my trial was to see if this combo would shrink tumors. The trial lasted for 3 months and was weekly Herceptin and 4 Tykerb daily. I know I was the first patient at Vanderbilt to do this trial but I understand Baylor University has the most.
The benefits of this trial could be to avoid a mastectomy which was not the case for me but was told that at the beginning. The other benefit could be to avoid chemo.
I agreed to do the trial but only if I could receive chemo. I was not as well informed about HER2 as am I now and made this decision because the trial was so new and there was no long term information on what the impact could be of foregoing chemo. In addition, I have a friend who's father is a surgeon at a reputable hospital in another state. I faxed all the information on the trial and he consulted with breast cancer specialists there and that was the advice he would give his own daughter so that is what I went with. I was so overwhelmed I just wanted someone to tell me what to do.
I don't know if that was the right choice but I'm not going to second guess myself at this point.
I see a lot of posts regarding this combo with mets but was curious as to if there are any of you who did the same trial I did. If so,
--When did you complete the trial?
--What were your results?
--How are you doing?
--Did you receive chemo or did you do the Herceptin/Tykerb only?
Thanks so much.
The purpose of my trial was to see if this combo would shrink tumors. The trial lasted for 3 months and was weekly Herceptin and 4 Tykerb daily. I know I was the first patient at Vanderbilt to do this trial but I understand Baylor University has the most.
The benefits of this trial could be to avoid a mastectomy which was not the case for me but was told that at the beginning. The other benefit could be to avoid chemo.
I agreed to do the trial but only if I could receive chemo. I was not as well informed about HER2 as am I now and made this decision because the trial was so new and there was no long term information on what the impact could be of foregoing chemo. In addition, I have a friend who's father is a surgeon at a reputable hospital in another state. I faxed all the information on the trial and he consulted with breast cancer specialists there and that was the advice he would give his own daughter so that is what I went with. I was so overwhelmed I just wanted someone to tell me what to do.
I don't know if that was the right choice but I'm not going to second guess myself at this point.
I see a lot of posts regarding this combo with mets but was curious as to if there are any of you who did the same trial I did. If so,
--When did you complete the trial?
--What were your results?
--How are you doing?
--Did you receive chemo or did you do the Herceptin/Tykerb only?
Thanks so much.