[michele u]

Rupali,

i am stage 3 also. I was dx in 2003. I am in the process of getting Tykerb. My onc wrote my insurance for medical "necessity" They are paying 80% of it. My 20% is still 1,000$ amonth. I'm in contact with some advocacy places to pay for the 20% if you want the numbers i posted them aways back. My look at the whole Tykerb thing is. If one is stage 4, they could wait so when they need it is always there. For us stage 3ers, we are still looking for the "cure". If there is anything out there that will give me any chance of it, i'm going for it. I took one year of Herceptin. I pushed for more and they said no. As Dr. Slamon put it, if we can get to 6 years, we might be cured. I'm going for it!!! I think i'm going to use Tykerb for 3-4 months. I'm just going off the Finland trial where 9 weeks of Herceptin was as good as a year. Hopefully studies will show that 3 months of Tykerb will do the same.