Herceptin with Taxanes or not
 

Hi all,
I have been on Herceptin for 6 months now. I started Herceptin after having mastectomy and then 4AC and 4 Taxol dose dense every 2 weeks.

When I read all the trial results I get very confused as it seems they all talk abt advantage of taking Herceptin with Taxanes for 52 weeks. I am thinking if anyone of you had a discussion with your onc of restarting Taxane with Herceptin.

Please reply.

Regards,
Rupali

Taxol with Herceptin
 

Rupali:I have talked with my oncologist about giving me Taxol with Herceptin and he is very reluctant to do so. He said that Chemo has long term effects on the body and as more woman survive BC he expects to see more of these long term effects. He did, however, agree to a second year of Herceptin.

Barbara

Barbara,
What stage are you? When did you finish your first year? Just wondering when you said he agreed for a second year.

Rupali,

Are you thinking that you need to take 52 weeks of Herceptin with a Taxane? I am a bit confused by your post. I took Herceptin for 21 straight weeks with Carboplatin and Taxotere and then continued to take Herceptin for a full year. I did not take a Taxane for a full year. I did take Herceptin every 3 weeks. I hope this answers your question, if not, please post again and we will try try to do a better job of explaining this.

Answer to Michele
 

Michele:

I am Stage IIB, I started A/C in February 2004 and finished Taxol in May 2004. In June 2004 I started off-label Herceptin at my request and finished my first year June 2005. I went right on to my second year which will run until June 2006. I had approched my oncologist in April 2005 about a second year as he likes to think about non standard therapy before he agrees to it. I really like my oncologist as he listens to his patients and is sensitive to the anxiety that cancer creates.

Barbara

Hi Kristen,
I wanted to ask if someone had been taking 52 weeks of Heceptin with Taxanes and if they did that after they had already done 4 rounds of dose dense taxol every 15 days...
I was diagnosed stage 3 A and I am on only Herceptin now....
done with 4AC, $Taxol , 33 rads and Mastectomy.

I was also stage IIIA with 5 nodes, did TAC & then barely 7 mos of herceptin. It was supposed to be a year but I was hospitalized with congestive heart failure as a result of the herceptin. Please make sure that you are monitored while on it. I was not & blame my onc who is no longer my onc. I had a muga scan before chemo & then, nothing.

I never took taxol. I had four rounds of cytoxan and epirudicin . I finished in march and then was called back to begin herceptin in July. I asked if I should take taxol and the onc said no. My onc rarely uses taxol for stage I and said that I needed the herceptin but not the taxol. BERTA

hormone receptor status
 

My onc indicated that a good deal of the huge benefit in the clinical trials by taking a taxane was received by those who were hormone receptor negative or only weakly positive. So if you are hormone receptor positive it may be that adding a taxane is less beneficial to you and more harmful than helpful.

AlaskaAngel