Bad results while on herceptin
 

I was diagnosed in august 2011 with breast cancer, the lump was mostly made up of pre-cancer however found traces of active cancer both within the dcis and lymph glands under the arm. I also tested positive for her2. I have responded very well to the first set of chemo (red devil) 3 month treatments. I then started on my weekly sessions, on the fourth session, i started my first of the three weekly herceptin treatment. Within a couple of days my lump had almost grown to the orginal size as to when i started. Now the oncologist says we should give it another three weeks of weekly dosages of herceptin to see how i respond. Has anyone expeirienced this before and does that mean that herceptin will not work for me?

Re: Bad results while on herceptin
 

Didn't you have a lumpectomy or mastectomy? I hadn't heard of neoadjuvent chemo for early stage cancer before. How big was the lump? I guess I'm confused about your staging and treatment.

Maybe somebody else who did neoadjuvent chemo can share their experiences?

Re: Bad results while on herceptin
 

Hi, the lump is about 4 by 5 cm, my breast surgoen wanted to try and reduce the cancerous part first before doing the mastectomy and only do it after the chemo treatments. I have this question alot but according to them they wanted to track the reduction in cancer with the v marker otherwise the would do the mastectomy and not know if they got everything. Does that make sense

Re: Bad results while on herceptin
 

Yes it does make sense. It's just unusual for DCIS to spread to the lymph nodes. I suppose it was the IDC component that spread.

Jacqueline