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Jean · 03-31-2008, 01:29 AM

Lin,
Congratulations to Annette on finishing radiation treatments. There continues to be much debate on treatment choices with small tumors.
While at S.A. BC symposium there was much debate on this subject. Some
dr. believe all Her2 patients should at the very least have hercetpin. Dr. Slamon is one of them, he is a strong advocate of herceptin. He is the Father of herceptin. My advice is first find an onc. who specializes in breast cancer. That he is up to date on treatments and tests. Second, have your friend make decisions based on knowledge and not the fear of what could happen and the what if's. Third, you must realize that all meds have side effects and there are risks. For me, I wanted all the % 's
on my side, no matter how small. Each 1% brings me over to the winner side as far as I am concerned. Also, most important, it has now been
established that "one size does not fit all" each person should address there dx and tumor not by size, but rather the character of the tumor, the finger print of it. You can have a tiny tumor and it could have a high KI 67 level, or like doug, his oncotype DX test came back with a very high risk of recurrence (mine came back high risk) and my tumor was tiny. There is a pattern with Oncotype DX and Her2 patents, most of the time the test does come back high...it certainly helps those who are on the fence about chemo. The data is still out on the early stagers who have had chemo/herceptin/or just herceptin. We do know that herceptin is the "Magic bullet" and has proven to help those with spread of disease who are stage IV...it is only since last year that herceptin was offered to early stagers, there are many women who wanted to have herceptin and could not get it. Either they were too far out from chemo treatment or were not having chemo/therefore, no herceptin. Some women were able
to get herceptin off label. Your friend is lucky that she was not dx. 1.5 ago she would not have the choice. I met a woman a few weeks ago in the infusion room, she was telling me her first onc. told her there was no guarantee that treatment would help. She left that dr. and found another who said, "You have a one in eleven chance and you might as well be that one." I firmly believe that attitude is important on everyone's part.

Wishing you and Annette all the best, please do keep us updated.
Best Regards,
Jean

03-31-2008, 01:29 AM	#19
Jean Senior Member Join Date: Oct 2005 Location: New Jersey Posts: 3,154	Lin, Congratulations to Annette on finishing radiation treatments. There continues to be much debate on treatment choices with small tumors. While at S.A. BC symposium there was much debate on this subject. Some dr. believe all Her2 patients should at the very least have hercetpin. Dr. Slamon is one of them, he is a strong advocate of herceptin. He is the Father of herceptin. My advice is first find an onc. who specializes in breast cancer. That he is up to date on treatments and tests. Second, have your friend make decisions based on knowledge and not the fear of what could happen and the what if's. Third, you must realize that all meds have side effects and there are risks. For me, I wanted all the % 's on my side, no matter how small. Each 1% brings me over to the winner side as far as I am concerned. Also, most important, it has now been established that "one size does not fit all" each person should address there dx and tumor not by size, but rather the character of the tumor, the finger print of it. You can have a tiny tumor and it could have a high KI 67 level, or like doug, his oncotype DX test came back with a very high risk of recurrence (mine came back high risk) and my tumor was tiny. There is a pattern with Oncotype DX and Her2 patents, most of the time the test does come back high...it certainly helps those who are on the fence about chemo. The data is still out on the early stagers who have had chemo/herceptin/or just herceptin. We do know that herceptin is the "Magic bullet" and has proven to help those with spread of disease who are stage IV...it is only since last year that herceptin was offered to early stagers, there are many women who wanted to have herceptin and could not get it. Either they were too far out from chemo treatment or were not having chemo/therefore, no herceptin. Some women were able to get herceptin off label. Your friend is lucky that she was not dx. 1.5 ago she would not have the choice. I met a woman a few weeks ago in the infusion room, she was telling me her first onc. told her there was no guarantee that treatment would help. She left that dr. and found another who said, "You have a one in eleven chance and you might as well be that one." I firmly believe that attitude is important on everyone's part. Wishing you and Annette all the best, please do keep us updated. Best Regards, Jean __________________ Stage 1, Grade 1, 3/30/05 Lumpectomy 4/15/05 - 6MM IDC Node Neg. (Sentinel node) ER+ 90% / PR-, Her2+++ by FISH Ki-67 40% Arimidex 5/05 Radiation 32 trt, 5/30/05 Oncotype DX test 4/17/06, 31% high risk TOPO 11 neg. 4/06 Stopped Arimidex 5/06 TCH 5/06, 6 treatments Herceptin 5/06 - for 1 yr. 9/06 Completed chemo Started Femara Sept. 2006 Last edited by Jean; 03-31-2008 at 03:19 AM..