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Old 08-12-2007, 09:38 PM   #3
Lani
Senior Member
 
Join Date: Mar 2006
Posts: 4,778
Just a thought

You might want to follow your her2 ECD serum test (too bad you didn't test it before you started herceptin again)

It usually goes down 20% within the first 3-4 weeks if herceptin is working

THEY found it to be positive even in some cases where the primary was her2-(infering that the mets were her2+ or something about the tissue her2 testing was erroneous).{ Papers on this topic include several by Walter Carney.}

You don't say what kind of scans showed your bone mets ie, bone scan vs CT scan vs MRI scan. From my reading, I think each has a different time interval before effect of medication shows up and it may also be individual ie, not the same for everyone.

Has anyone suggested getting serial Circulating tumor cells? Dr. Cristanofelli (?sp) of MD Anderson has championed this as a way of following the effectiveness of treatments for metastatic bc just as they take serial core biopsies of those undergoing neoadjuvant bc to see if the treatment is working.

It is also felt that herceptin works not only on those patients whose tumors are her2+(amplified) but also on those who have low her2(?negative) but lots of heregulin.( a her family ligand--the thing that stimulates the receptor)

Hope some of this helped!
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