[RobinP]

The standard of care treatment for hormonal negative her2 + bc prior to Herceptin was chem, AC. Now Herceptin is added to the mix with great increases in survival, at least so far. Nobody knows how Herceptin alone will delay or stop relapse. Time will tell, but in the meantime, the old standard, chemo, is given with Herceptin, given all the unknowns with Herceptin.

PS You may want to go to adjuvantonline.com for your relapse risk but I know that for even an invasive 1cm and under, the risk is about 10% for someone hormonal negative bc .This is pretty high even for small disease due to the er, pr negative status.