HER2 Support Group Forums - View Single Post - for those who are ER-: tamoxifen (derivative) may work on ER- breast cancer!

Lani · 01-03-2008, 11:31 AM

again it is mice vs people and finding the right subgroup of breast cancer patients in whom any one treatment may work (hard if you test it on too many subtypes lumped together)

Some drugs are also found to cause ER- bc to subvert or transform to ER+ bc and then tamoxifen works.

The numbers you and your oncologist used were probably generated from Adjuvant online which does not even include her2, let alone other factors such as ki67

Not to say anything is wrong, it is just that there are new developments which might make treatment protocols change in the future.

When I post things like this, it is because I want those who are newly diagnosed or facing a possible change in treatment to have the information
or at least signs of hope.

I wish I could somehow make these things dissapear for those who tend to
look at new research (which hasn't been proven to be applicable, safe or effective yet) and try to look back on their own diagnosis and treatment decisions wondering if they should have been different.

Some people don't worry about it and just print things out just in case their condition changes someday. When I think the information may truly question a treatment many have had or list new information of a side effect of a drug many may have had I put a yellow yield sign on it.

The main thing is that knowledge of the disease is constantly changing, one can only make decisions based on the best information one has at the time,
and there are no right answers!

Hope this helped!

01-03-2008, 11:31 AM	#3
Lani Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 4,783	No it seems in their (and others) experiments tamoxifen may work as well again it is mice vs people and finding the right subgroup of breast cancer patients in whom any one treatment may work (hard if you test it on too many subtypes lumped together) Some drugs are also found to cause ER- bc to subvert or transform to ER+ bc and then tamoxifen works. The numbers you and your oncologist used were probably generated from Adjuvant online which does not even include her2, let alone other factors such as ki67 Not to say anything is wrong, it is just that there are new developments which might make treatment protocols change in the future. When I post things like this, it is because I want those who are newly diagnosed or facing a possible change in treatment to have the information or at least signs of hope. I wish I could somehow make these things dissapear for those who tend to look at new research (which hasn't been proven to be applicable, safe or effective yet) and try to look back on their own diagnosis and treatment decisions wondering if they should have been different. Some people don't worry about it and just print things out just in case their condition changes someday. When I think the information may truly question a treatment many have had or list new information of a side effect of a drug many may have had I put a yellow yield sign on it. The main thing is that knowledge of the disease is constantly changing, one can only make decisions based on the best information one has at the time, and there are no right answers! Hope this helped!