live from San Antonie SABCS!

[chrisy]

This morning the symposium officially began, and the Her2support.org table was crowded with people stopping by to learn about our website.
Paty and Veronica, from our Hispanic sister site "Latinos con Cancer de Seno" are particularly busy spreading the word to doctors from all over the world, and particularly Mexico and South America. Great job!

We've already met doctors from all over the world, researchers working on projects or early clinical trials for Her2+ patients, and adovcay groups inviting us to participate in various projects.

Yesterday, before the meeting, there were a series of educational sessions. Severaly of us attended one on Symptom Management which included some very interesting research on Lymphedema (which was being posted to JCO that day) and exercise. These studies looked at the risk/benefit of having women with or at high risk of developing lympedema go through strength training - turning the old paradigm of "don't use that arm" on its head.

Note, this was controlled physical therapy, not just go out and start pumping iron - but this approach reduced lympedema and prevented loss of upper body strength.

the analogy was, heart patients are now encouraged to slowly build strength but not to go out and start shoveling snow. Interesting stuff.

More to come!

[chrisy]

Hard at work...

[StephN]

Chiming in and seconding Chrisy's report that it is going well here. By coming a day early and being able to set up the booth and get checked in to the symposium we missed the lines yesterday morning!

I attended a brilliant special lecture this morning concerning new research on circulating tumor cells. New ways to cull out those cells are being developed and and then they break out a single tumor cell into ever tinier parts.
Several new hypotheses being studied as to the action of these cells from primary tumor to resting in the bone marrow and recirculating. New markers are presumably going to come out of this research. All very theoretical at this point, but they do feel they are on to a direction in which to keep working.

This evening we will attend a special reception put on by Genentech for Patient Advocates. We will let you know what info on new therapies we can ferret out from them. In the past when I attended the panel gave broad hints, but would clam up when we tried to dig for details.

[ElaineM]

Hey !! Thanks for the update and the photos. You are all looking great !! I am looking forward to more updates.
If you run into Dr. Cho from Hawaii say hello from me.

[Mary L]

That sounds so interesting. I wish I was there. Keep the updates coming. Mary L

[caya]

Keep those updates coming gals!!

all the best
caya

[Midwest Alice]

Hi Guys!!!! Love the pictures !!! Send more. Thank you for the up dates and please keep them coming.

[CourtneyL]

So glad you wonderful ladies are there representing our community! Know that we are with you in spirit.

[PinkGirl]

Hey Chrisy ... who is that blonde babe on the left??? OHHHH ...
it's Joan!!!!

[krisvell]

Hi all; Thanks for sharing. Your booth looks great and so do the ladies around it. Keep on the look out for the Walter Reed BC Vaccine trial that I'm currently participating in. The principal investigator mentioned they were presenting something. Can't wait to read it.
Kris...

[mamacze]

I am thrilled that we have such an able contingent at our Her 2 table...thank you all dear Her 2 sisters for reporting back first hand results! I am looking forward to hearing about the Genentech patient advocates conference. Thank you all!
Kim from CT
ps Kris V - Love your picture!

[Joanna J]

Hey out there in San Antonio,now that is dedication sisters!!!! you all look great, send more pics;Thanks so much for representing all of us at HER 2,I am glad I joined LOVE YOU GALS,Joanna J

[sassy]

Laurel and I were walking through the lobby when we arrived Tuesday and this strangely familiar "blonde" lady approached us. Somewhat apprehensively we spoke to her-----------IT WAS JOAN!

She really looks great as a blonde.

Laurel and I attended several presentations comparing different aspects of AI's vs. tamoxifen in her2+ and her2-, and also weight significance for ER+'s relative to recurrance. More info to come.

[DeenaH]

Thank you for representing us! My radiation onc is there now, and I think my onc is too. Is this annual symposium something that is open to anyone? I would love to go to something like this to learn the latest and greatest about the research being done. I'm a bit of a research nut, so this is right up my alley!

I am especially interested in the new information about Lymphadema. I have a mild case already, and am working with a PT who specializes in Lymphadema. She told me the same thing about strength training. It has to be gradual, but it's actually beneficial to use your arm.

I'm also very interested in the Circulating Tumor Cell research.

[Trish]

Thanks for the info and pics. I would love to be there but at least my oncologist is. Keep enjoying yourselves and hoping for lots more exciting research.
Trish

[laureen]

I soooo need to get out of this retail hell job, so i can come next year. Thanks for representing ladies. You rock.

[Mary L]

I really wish I was there to hear all the news and new advances in research. All of you ladies have fun!!! Mary L

[schoolteacher]

Thank you ladies. You all look great.

Amelia

[Soccermom]

BRAVO ladies! Have a great time and "pick their brains"!
Hugs,Marcia

[StephN]

Well, the Genentech reception turned out to be just that --a reception. There was no panel to present anythin this year. Reason being that they have no data they can present and discuss with us at this time. But we did meet the movers and shakers, who were glad to have time to chat us up and find out more about US.

Went to a nice evenig session on Bone Microenvironment. Lots of talk about Denosumab vs. Zometa. The studies are ongoing, and there is not absolute clarity, but there are definitely patients who can benefit from using one or the other.

The Hot Topics Mentor Session was full of rants tonight. Some frank talk about some important issues!

Need to release this computer for another user - it is in the hotel.

More soon.

[StephN]

P.S. Marcia - the FORCE booth is right across from ours. Good to see them here.

[AlaskaAngel]

What a lively crew at SABCS!

While you are all there together, does anyone know how to make HER2 chat accessible again? It would be a great way to share our conversations on a drop-in basis live about SABCS, as well as for you all to be able to demonstrate it there at the conference as part of what HER2support can offer in connecting people who are interested in HER2 news.

Thanks,

AlaskaAngel

[Soccermom]

Thanks for the shout out on the FORCE gals Steph! Please send them all my love as well as all my Her2 gal pals!!
Laureen and I wanna' be there next year (Laureen I spent the last 5 years prior to Aug 09 in "retail hell'..being broke and sane has some benefits!?)

Hugs to all,Marcia

[ElaineM]

Thanks for the updates. Please bring alot of transcripts back home and share them with us later. I also have been reading the Cure Magazines updates. I hope Dr. Cho, one of the oncologists I know in Hawaii brings alot of news back with him too.

[Jackie07]

San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium - 2010 daily report by Cure magazine:

http://media.curetoday.com/sabcs2010/ (http://media.curetoday.com/sabcs2010/)

[Joan M]

Here are links to posters at SABCS on lower vitamin D levels being prevalent in women with breast cancer and the potential utility of curcumin and/or Herceptin in the treatment of HER2 breast cancer. I'm not sure whether the links will work. The pages are pdf files so I can't cut and paste them.

http://www.posters2view.com/sabcs10/viewp.php?nu=P4-03-03
http://www.posters2view.com/sabcs10/viewp.php?nu=P2-21-01

Had a great time with my HER2 sisters.

Rhonda, Pink, you're funny!

Joan

[Jackie07]

The links worked for me, Joan. Thanks.

[Rich66]

Background:
Despite the success of herceptin, a significant proportion of HER-2 positive breast cancer patients responded poorly to the treatment. Curcumin (diferuloylmethane), derived from Curcuma longa L,
can inhibit the formation of tumors, induce apoptosis, and act on a variety of signal transduction pathways.

Objectives:We have hypothesized that the property of curcumin to downregulate EGFR, HER-2 oncoprotein, and signal transduction pathway of PI3K/Akt, and MAPK may be used in the treatment of HER-2 over expressed breast cancer.


Results: The combination of curcumin did not interfere with the action of herceptin. The herceptin sensitive BT-474 and herceptin resistant SKBr-3(hr) were all sensitive to curcumin treatment. In western blot analysis, the phosphorylation of HER-2, Akt, MAPK were reduced in BT-474 cells when treated with herceptin. In SKBr-3(hr) cells, the addition of herceptin did not downregulate the phosphorylation of HER-2, Akt, and MAPK. When treated with curcumin, the phosphorylation of HER-2, Akt, and MAPK of SKBr-3(hr) were decreased combined with the downregulation of HER-2 oncoprotein in a dose and time dependent manner.



Conclusions: The effectiveness of curcumin in the treatment of HER-2 overexpressed breast cancer was further confirmed through in vivo BT-474 xenograft model. The comparable ability of curcumin to inhibit cell proliferation, mobility, and angiogenesis as herceptin, combined with the potential ability to overcome the herceptin resistance, curcumin may be a novel agent in the treatment of HER-2 overexressed breast cancer.

[StephN]

Thanks for posting that one, Rich.
I visited that poster and brought home a reprint, but the researcher was not at that poster when I was. Would have loved to talk to them.

In case anyone does not understand what a "poster" is: At these scientific meetings studies are reduced to a large rectangular "poster" size presentation (approx 4 feet wide by 2 or 3 feet high) and put up on large cork board stands. These stands are lined up in rows with letter number IDs so we can find them from the listing in a booklet given out to attendees. There "poster sessions" in which the posters from a previous session come down and new ones go up. They try to put them in some order according to subject or type of study.