Reminder: Er- can turn pos after Herceptin
 

Just a reminder to those considered ER- before Herceptin. It may have changed your status and given you more options:

Italian investigators gave trastuzumab to 10 patients with HER2-positive, ER-negative breast cancer. Three of the 10 subsequently had upregulation of ER±, and two of the three were treated with letrozole monotherapy and remained progression free for as long as three years
More:
http://her2support.org/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=38998
And recurrence/mets alone can change it too.

And..Tamoxifen can work on both ER+ and - as well as synergize with chemos. Tamoxifen might be useful if no way to check status.

Re: Er- can turn pos after Herceptin
 

Rich,

Thank you so much for all of your postings. I have been following the boards daily (from my iPhone, what a great tool to have) and, in particular, the recent postings about Tamoxifen synergies and ER-/ER+ changes.

I' slightly ER+ (5%) and some doctors/researchers would consider this ER-. Either way, my oncologist at Stanford put me on Tamoxifen shortly after I finished rads. We're being as aggressive as we can.

Now, I'm taking Tamoxifen together with Herceptin, and if I understand all the recent postings correctly, this can actually be a good thing?

Thank you so much and I wish you and your mom all the best!

Re: Er- can turn pos after Herceptin
 

Yep, my onc just shared this with me last month and that is why he decided to put me back on Aromasin after being off of it for almost 3 years.