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One of those days
Hi Joy,
We all have those days when everything seems grim. What I try to keep in mind is that there is a ton of research going on. When I was initially diagnosed in 2002 at age 32, I had stage IV breast cancer and no one had heard of herceptin. I assumed I wouldn't live long since the tumor was so aggressive. I got AC/T and radiation.
3 yrs ago I found out I had mets to brain and liver - figured that was it, but had Herceptin and Navelbine for 2.5 yrs.(no one had heard of Tykerb then). It was effective for the longest time my oncologist had heard of. After that, the scans showed the tumors were growing again.
I managed to get into the tail end of a clinical trial for Xeloda and Tykerb. 6 weeks in, the scans showed that my tumors were significantly smaller and some had even disappeared.
I assume this combo won't work forever either, but try to keep in mind that by that time, they may have found something even better.
In a wierd way, we're lucky we have such aggressive cancers because they have much more research focusing on them, and it's easier for differentiation between rapidly growing normal cells (i.e. hair) and even more rapidly growing cancer cells.
Hang in there.
Hope this helps,
Susie
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