Of interest to Her2+ ER+

[Barbara2]

Risk of Recurrent Disease in HER2-Positive Patients

I had posted this in the "Articles of Interest" section, but thought I would move it over here, too. The article contained some info I had not seen before and thought it might generate some discussion amoungst the Her2+ ER+ people.

Daniel F. Hayes, MD:
What I find interesting about this study is that with ER-positive cancer there is an ongoing risk of recurrence for a long period of time. It looks as though there is a secondary spike between 8 and 12 years. Dr. Goss did not necessarily agree with that, but there have been some reports of this, whereas in ER-negative patients, the tumor recurs within the first 5-7 years or it does not recur.

Here is the entire article:http://www.clinicaloptions.com/Oncology/Conference%20Coverage/Breast%20Cancer%20Dec%202009/Tracks/Prognosis%20and%20Prediction/Prognosis_and_Prediction_EA/Pages/Page%2012.aspx

Hopeful also pasted the article there.

[Rich66]

LINK to articles of interest post (http://her2support.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=44143)

[Hopeful]

Barbara,

FYI, I cut and pasted the discussion into your other thread, because you have to register (free) for the link to work, but registration for that site requires providing more personal information than some may be comfortable with. Like you, I thought the information important enough to be shared with the group.

Hopeful

[AlaskaAngel]

Hi Barbara,

As a triple positive who has stayed NED without trastuzumab or an AI and has just passed the 8 year mark, I too am listening to this discussion.

A question I have is:

Christine's recurrence a while back leads me to wonder what the frequency is for these late recurrences to occur primarily in the CNS, where monitoring is not as commonly done in general and given that it may be that the symptoms are not recognized as quickly as they are when metastasis occurs elsewhere.

A.A.

[Hopeful]

AA, some info for you: http://theoncologist.alphamedpress.org/cgi/content/full/13/7/739

Hopeful

[michka]

Thanks Barbara. This article really got me panicked. I still have these headaches and am going for a brain MRI next Tuesday. But I prefer to be informed. Michka

[bejuce]

Is anyone aware of a study offering maintenance Herceptin/Tykerb/TDM-1 for those on Tamoxifen? Seems to me that the article makes the point that those of us ER+/HER-2+ could benefit from doing both HER-2 therapy and endocrine therapy at the same time.

I'm still on my full year of Herceptin and taking Tamoxifen as well, but I'll be worried when my Herceptin year ends to just be on Tamoxifen...