at ASCO meeting heard Dr. Robert Carlson of Stanford

[Lani]

(usually one of the most conservative voices on many committees setting national standards) say that the next thing he sees is trials to determine which her2+ bc patients can be treated without chemo-- not just those best treated with herceptin+lapatinib or herceptin+pertuzumab, but also herceptin alone.

I always imagined he would be one of the last people I would hear this from having heard him speak at multiple meetings.

Here's to hoping for some day in the not too distant future when her2+ patients won't have to undergo nontargeted treatment

His comments were made during a panel discussion presented by ( andvideo'd) Dr. Neil Love's organization (had the word "controversies" in the title) so it should be available online sometime soon

Lots of discussion of adjuvant treatment and treatment of Stage IV her2+ breast cancer during the panel.

['lizbeth]

I am so happy to hear that. If I would have had a choice of Herceptin alone or Herceptin with another targeted therapy I would have chosen that.

[schoonder]

"Here's to hoping for some day in the not too distant future when her2+ patients won't have to undergo nontargeted treatment"

Failure to account for "ALL" non-targeted treatment was reason for FDA refusal to even look at data that showed what T-DM1 could do for 3rd-line HER2+ MBC patients. Need to see those regulations upgraded to reflect a more individualistic health care approach and hopefully FDA Congressional Oversight Committee is busy getting the ball rolling.

[hutchibk]

I love Dr. Neil Love's panels... always very thought provoking and informative. He's one of the sharpest knives in the drawer.

I tend to doubt that the FDA will ever move more towards approving treatments with an eye on individualistic approaches ~ even though that's where the research is taking us... because the govt's ever devolving version of a 'health system' has been devised, engineered and manufactured to treat one size fits all (except those who it doesn't, oops, oh well) because it's cheapest and most uniform.

But, one can hope.

[chrisy]

Schoonder - I picked up on that two. Didn't know whether to laugh or cry at todays WSJ front page article from ASCO in which the FDA's Janet Woodcock said they were doing just that...
Sadly, they seem to be heading the opposite direction based on the TDM1 decision.

[Rich66]

If chemo/targeted agent sensitivity testing were part of the initial surgery, I can't help but think better use of resources could dovetail with better outcomes.
And I really hope immune system based approaches targeting more generic markers (PSMA etc) keep gaining ground. Need to gain it faster...
But here's another her2 based approach seemingly moving forward, NeuVax: http://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2011/06/06/rxi-advances-breast-cancer-vaccine.html

[bejuce]

This is great, Rich! Thanks for posting about this vaccine. I'm
almost done with my vaccine trial and so far, so good.

[Rich66]

This is more like it: http://her2support.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?p=251465#post251465