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Becky · 09-14-2006, 08:14 AM

Dear Stephanie

I attended 2 different conferences this year. The first was the YSC (Young Survival Coalition) in Denver. There, I met so many women (most under 40) who were HER2+. Three women in particular were survivors like you (including the YSC President, Randi who is over a 10 yr survivor and had the same treatment as you did - which, she said at the time taxol was "out of the box). One of the other women said she was also ER/PR pos and refused tamoxifen and she is obviously fine.

Your long term prognosis seems very good. The first 2 yrs beyond diagnosis are the most vunerable. This is especially true if you are hormone negative. It would be rare to recur so far out but there is a remote possibility that it can happen so you do have to be diligent. You have the exact same situation as me (with one node and ER pos) so you are an inspiration for me (2 yrs out) but I was able to also get Herceptin because of timing.

The second show I went to was this year's ASCO. There was a paper given on the benefit of following AC by taxol. This study separated out looking at that benefit by pathology. Her2+ women (regardless of hormone status) and triple negative women (not ER, not PR, not HER2) gained GREAT survival benefits by adding taxol to their treatment protocol. So.. your aggressive oncologist did a great thing to you by giving you the drug. Taxol does nothing in regard to survival benefit to women who are ER/PR positive only (therefore, a testy agrument occurred during the presentation of this paper - some oncologists attending the presentation loudly debated why the drug is given to women who don't benefit from it since all node positive women, regardless of pathology, now receive 4 taxol treatments).

You will not find many women like you on this board probably because they do not need the support and aren't the type to want to give support to others. But I encourage you to stay as you can help many of us "graduate" to your cancer free survvorship. You can show many that Her2+ women can and do do well.

I am glad you have found us.

Kind regards

Becky

09-14-2006, 08:14 AM	#5
Becky Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Stockton, NJ Posts: 4,179	Dear Stephanie I attended 2 different conferences this year. The first was the YSC (Young Survival Coalition) in Denver. There, I met so many women (most under 40) who were HER2+. Three women in particular were survivors like you (including the YSC President, Randi who is over a 10 yr survivor and had the same treatment as you did - which, she said at the time taxol was "out of the box). One of the other women said she was also ER/PR pos and refused tamoxifen and she is obviously fine. Your long term prognosis seems very good. The first 2 yrs beyond diagnosis are the most vunerable. This is especially true if you are hormone negative. It would be rare to recur so far out but there is a remote possibility that it can happen so you do have to be diligent. You have the exact same situation as me (with one node and ER pos) so you are an inspiration for me (2 yrs out) but I was able to also get Herceptin because of timing. The second show I went to was this year's ASCO. There was a paper given on the benefit of following AC by taxol. This study separated out looking at that benefit by pathology. Her2+ women (regardless of hormone status) and triple negative women (not ER, not PR, not HER2) gained GREAT survival benefits by adding taxol to their treatment protocol. So.. your aggressive oncologist did a great thing to you by giving you the drug. Taxol does nothing in regard to survival benefit to women who are ER/PR positive only (therefore, a testy agrument occurred during the presentation of this paper - some oncologists attending the presentation loudly debated why the drug is given to women who don't benefit from it since all node positive women, regardless of pathology, now receive 4 taxol treatments). You will not find many women like you on this board probably because they do not need the support and aren't the type to want to give support to others. But I encourage you to stay as you can help many of us "graduate" to your cancer free survvorship. You can show many that Her2+ women can and do do well. I am glad you have found us. Kind regards Becky