Herceptin and no chemo?
 

Is herceptin given without any chemo? If so, under what circumstances... stage, oncotype, etc?

Thanks,

Skeetur

I am stage 1a, no nodes, and my oncologist agreed to give me herceptin without chemotherapy. However, my tumor markers were elevated so I decided to do chemo after all. However, I began with just herceptin.

Herceptin and Chem
 

Skeetur,
I was told that it is a possiblilty, but unless my ONCO scores come back LOW then I really must do the math. As you can see from my patholgy everything was in my "favor" until my HER2+ came back positive. I do not know the exact result of the fish except that they are positive and now the ONCO is being done. It sounds as tho you are hoping for the same as I am... no chemo. But I have been through it once and survived so I know we can do it again if we must. Remember every one of us is different with different DRs.
You remain in my thoughts. Keep posting.
Melinda

Skeetur
I was originally Stage 1, small tumor, clean nodes ER-, PR-, Her2 +++, I was not given chemo. I began Herceptin after recurrence 1 1/2 yrs later, and have been on it 3 1/2 years now. But I received it as Stage IV, not as Stage 1 as it was not available then for Stage 1.

Skeeter,

I was dx postmenopausal at the age of 52, ER+(80%) PR+(50%) Her2+ by IHC, 1.3 cm tumor (10% DCIS), intermediate grade, Ki-67 11%, sentinel node negative, so Stage 1. I did not want to do chemotherapy as I felt the gains for my particular situation were outweighed by the toxicity. I got opinions from two oncs, one who was affiliated with a major cancer center and could not give Herceptin w/o chemo, as it was not their protocol; the other is in private practice and will deviate from standard protocol, which is the onc I ended up going with. Both my onc and his consultant from another major cancer center felt very strongly that I should do Herceptin even if I would not have chemo. They believe it is biologically active in early stage patients when given as monotherapy. I know there are a few others who post here who also received Herceptin w/o chemo for stage 1, hormone positive bc.

Hopeful