[Christine MH-UK]

I am not thinking so much of FinHer as smaller studies like Hurley's regime HCT->AC, which did extremely well in women with stage III BC, or Buzdar's study where (Taxotere+Herceptin)->(FEC+Herceptin) had no recurrences (although I suspect that the Herceptin should be tried with lapatinib, which is synergistic with FEC at the cell level, one because it just seems like there must be a cardiotoxicity issue mixing it with FEC, an anthracycline, even though there supposedly wasn't one in the small trial).

While I don't think New Zealand has done the right thing in adopting FinHer without treating it as somewhat of a trial, it would be worthwhile to patients to know if short-term herceptin is effective. Herceptin's great, but going to the hospital for a whole year has caused some patients I know to have trouble getting on with their life. I for one found the cancer hospital to be a real downer. I had herceptin insomnia, too. I'm not knocking herceptin, which is a great drug, but a year is very long and I know some very high risk patients who had hardly finished herceptin when they recurred, which doesn't seem fair. Plus, shorter treatments should at the very least mean fewer MUGAS.