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MarilliM · 06-27-2007, 06:52 AM

Hi - My name is Idi and somebody might know me from another board. My husband's story is different. He had a liver transplant and ended up with breast cancer, 11 positive nodes. Since he has a suppressed immune system, he has never had chemo for this could be fatal to him. He can not take anything to boost his immune system for his liver would reject, it has to stay suppressed. At first there was no metastisis, after his mastectomy, two months later it went to his bones, just recently it showed up in his lung. He is Stage IV. It has been 5 1/2 years and he has had all the hormonal drugs there are. He is ER/PR+ and HER2+++. So far he has had radiation. Now, we have run out of options. This has been discussed with several Oncologists and chemo is out, so they said if he wanted to try Herceptin on a weekly basis this would be his only option, however, still taking a chance with heart failure. However, he has had a low ejection fraction of 37 at one time and the last one was 57. They say once it has been that low that is not good, before he would do this he would have another MUGA test. I have asked so many questions and I really don't know why because he just doesn't fall into the same category as others. I found one person in New Zealand who had a liver transplant and got breast cancer. She had chemo and she died. I keep hoping but I think I am wasting everybody's time trying to find answers. He has never had symptoms from his cancer. So if he does nothing, the Oncologist said he could live up to 2 years but no one knows this for sure. Right now he is doing nothing. He feels fine and I'd hate for him to die from treatment and shorten his life. His main Oncologist said to call him in a few days, he is trying to come up with a non conventional treatment for him(whatever that means). I've tried posting on a transplant forum hoping to find someone with any kind of transplant that might have ended up with any kind of cancer (of course I don't wish this on anyone) but I had no responses. I want to thank you ladies - Sorry my story is long Thank you all again. Idi

06-27-2007, 06:52 AM	#7
MarilliM Member Join Date: Jun 2007 Posts: 8	Herceptin Hi - My name is Idi and somebody might know me from another board. My husband's story is different. He had a liver transplant and ended up with breast cancer, 11 positive nodes. Since he has a suppressed immune system, he has never had chemo for this could be fatal to him. He can not take anything to boost his immune system for his liver would reject, it has to stay suppressed. At first there was no metastisis, after his mastectomy, two months later it went to his bones, just recently it showed up in his lung. He is Stage IV. It has been 5 1/2 years and he has had all the hormonal drugs there are. He is ER/PR+ and HER2+++. So far he has had radiation. Now, we have run out of options. This has been discussed with several Oncologists and chemo is out, so they said if he wanted to try Herceptin on a weekly basis this would be his only option, however, still taking a chance with heart failure. However, he has had a low ejection fraction of 37 at one time and the last one was 57. They say once it has been that low that is not good, before he would do this he would have another MUGA test. I have asked so many questions and I really don't know why because he just doesn't fall into the same category as others. I found one person in New Zealand who had a liver transplant and got breast cancer. She had chemo and she died. I keep hoping but I think I am wasting everybody's time trying to find answers. He has never had symptoms from his cancer. So if he does nothing, the Oncologist said he could live up to 2 years but no one knows this for sure. Right now he is doing nothing. He feels fine and I'd hate for him to die from treatment and shorten his life. His main Oncologist said to call him in a few days, he is trying to come up with a non conventional treatment for him(whatever that means). I've tried posting on a transplant forum hoping to find someone with any kind of transplant that might have ended up with any kind of cancer (of course I don't wish this on anyone) but I had no responses. I want to thank you ladies - Sorry my story is long Thank you all again. Idi