Hello, I am a newcomer and newly diagnosed in February with her2/neu positive too, metastic stage 3, I think, with lymph node involvement and also spread to my liver and lungs. I am waiting for the oncologist to choose the treatments (had to wait for all of the test results). I am going to enter a trial (HKI-272??) and where I go is affiliated with the National Cancer Institute. I love my doctor, she is so positive and honest, the best relief was when she told me I will be around. Before that, frozen in shock for weeks, unable to eat, sleep or move. I am only 106 lbs to begin with. I am a widow with 4 kids, the youngest is 7. Life is tough enough but anyway, I am in New Jersey and would recommend Dr. Deborah Toppmeyer to anyone. I have gone through cancer with my husband and my Dad, unfortunately, neither made it. I was very selective in choosing a doctor and in my opinion, the larger more comprehensive centers seem more equipped and up to date with trials and treatments than the private oncologists, not that they are not good, just more treatment options at a facility geared for cancer. I am unsure of the accomodations for travelling patients but here is the link to the Cancer Institute of NJ site
http://www.cinj.org/CINJNetwork/patients_com.htm. Dr. Deborah Toppmeyer can be reached at 1-732-235-9692. Although I am just starting down this path to the unknown, I feel that it is worth a call. "No such thing as can't" is my motto and there are a million opinions available. I wish you all the luck in the world. PS. I found a way to get the insurance company to pay for travel & lodging and they would have paid for living expenses too for 3 months if my husband made it to his bone marrow transplant at Johns-Hopkins in Baltimore Maryland. They at 1st said sorry, multiple myeloma is not in our list of covered diseases. They wanted to cover nothing at all. I said sorry, next time I'll pick a disease in your book & network! I fought them and said lack of documentation does not justify denial and I demanded MANAGED CARE. I won. Managed care assigns a mediator who brings out of ordinary expenses to the meeting table and they approve or disapprove accordingly. From then on, they basically paid for anything that was necessary.