[Sherryg683]

In my opinion and from what I"ve been reading about for 3 years now, everyone should have a brain MRI done on a yearly basis. The chemos target the body but does not cross the blood brain barrier, and while most body mets can be held off or kept at bay, our brain is unprotected. At least with the most common chemos that we receive. A few they believe do cross the barrier, like Tykerb and possibly Xeloda. I believe what I read on the link Joe provided it said from 25% up to 40% Her 2 women will develope brain mets, that's a 15% spread there. I didn't pick up where it specified "women with mets" but maybe it did and I overlooked it. I have always believed from the beginning that I wanted to keep my brain checked and my oncologist has been very good about the MRI"s...It's been 8 months since my last one and I'm having him order another..I would rather ere on the cautious side and it does matter if they are caught early and small in number as to treatment options. One of the ladies here locally was diagnosed with her2 positive cancer many years ago, she was doing fine until she had a seizure and they found it in her brain..too late..she had never had any scans done, I think this is a practice that should be changed. HER2 is at higher risk than other breast cancers, so we should be kept a closer eye on....sherryg683