HERA two-year Herceptin arm results--the bad news and the good news!:
 

Was listening to Martine Piccart (head of the HERA trial) interviewed on Breast Cancer Update volume 4 2007 (google it).

She believes there may not even be results in 2008 and that even 2010 is "iffy" as it depends if they have enough "events" (recurrences and mets) to
report statistically significant results.

If they don't she said they may just report interim results in 2010 anyway as she feels everyone deserves to know at least what is known to date.

As that is the "bad News" --the GOOD NEWS is exactly the same ie, that they have SO FEW EVENTS ie, herceptin is so good at preventing recurrences!!! that they are unable yet decide if two years are better than one.

She stated that she is only sorry she didn't have another arm for three months of treatment or so.

There are other fascinating interviews in this edition of BCU--listen up!

Here is the Link
 

http://www.breastcancerupdate.com/20...rs/default.asp

Hopeful

Dr. Winer (at SABCS) indicated that the reason they keep stretching out the 2 years of Herceptin results is because there is no difference between the one year of Herceptin and the two years of Herceptin. It has nothing to do with lack of recurrences. If there were very little recurrences, they would say right away (much like the 50% reduction in recurrences for the 1 year of Herceptin). They would want everyone to know so they could continue those on it asap and maybe start others for another year.

The trial coordinators are hoping that as time passes, one will see that 2 years is more effective over time with less recurrences overall. This would be much the same as the original Tamoxifen studies where initially, 2 yrs wasn't any better than taking Tamoxifen for 5 yrs but over time, 5 yrs was much, much more beneficial.

Becky is completly right in that there is no significant difference in one vs two years Herceptin. Currently there is a clincial trial on six months of Herceptin. They know that the Herceptin works, they just don't know whether more is better or less is better. One of these days they will determine just how much Herceptin is needed to do the trick. At any rate, we HER2ers should be happy that we have Herceptin.

I have a question, Lani
 

Are you a bc survivor?...You do not have information in your profile, so I was just wondering... Thanks.

Reading Hopeful's link!
 

Hopeful's link to other articles was very helpful. I read most of the articles and learned much that I was not aware of previously. I recommend this link to anyone interested in knowing more about HER2+ disease and her/his likelihood of recurrence. I found the news encouraging.

Thank You Lani!
 

Thank you for being our guardian researcher...This is indeed mixed news, but I tink the good news prevails! Belindaxxxx