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Swimgirl · 12-22-2006, 11:22 AM

Hi,
I am not completely new to this board but I haven't posted in a long time. I wanted to share my good news in the hopes that it helps someone else. I have metastases in my brain and spinal cord and am Her2+. My spinal cord (not bones) metastasis has been with me since 2002. It was resected then irradiated. It grew back and I had stereotactic radiation to the spot in June of 2004 and Feb. 2006. I then developed brain mets (24 of them) last winter. I had whole brain radiation from Feb-March 2006. I initially had a good result. 4 brain mets were left at the 3 month follow up MRI. But new ones appeared at the 6 month follow up and the spinal cord tumor had grown some more. I started lapatinib and Xeloda through the lapaptinib compassionate use trial in September. When I had follow up MRIs of my brain and spinal cord this December, all spots in the brain had either shrunk or disappeared completely and the spinal cord tumor shrunk for the first time since 2004. I was so happy! I thought I was running out of options.

I wanted to share this so that the info might help someone else who is Her2+ with brain mets.

Happy holidays to all!

Elizabeth

12-22-2006, 11:22 AM	#13
Swimgirl Junior Member Join Date: Dec 2006 Posts: 1	lapatinib working on my recurrent brain mets Hi, I am not completely new to this board but I haven't posted in a long time. I wanted to share my good news in the hopes that it helps someone else. I have metastases in my brain and spinal cord and am Her2+. My spinal cord (not bones) metastasis has been with me since 2002. It was resected then irradiated. It grew back and I had stereotactic radiation to the spot in June of 2004 and Feb. 2006. I then developed brain mets (24 of them) last winter. I had whole brain radiation from Feb-March 2006. I initially had a good result. 4 brain mets were left at the 3 month follow up MRI. But new ones appeared at the 6 month follow up and the spinal cord tumor had grown some more. I started lapatinib and Xeloda through the lapaptinib compassionate use trial in September. When I had follow up MRIs of my brain and spinal cord this December, all spots in the brain had either shrunk or disappeared completely and the spinal cord tumor shrunk for the first time since 2004. I was so happy! I thought I was running out of options. I wanted to share this so that the info might help someone else who is Her2+ with brain mets. Happy holidays to all! Elizabeth