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It is wonderful that your doctor agreed to trt with just herceptin and your insurance covered it (?)
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My insurance did cover it; had they refused to do so, I would not have had the tx. I was dx in June 2006, after the results of the Herceptin adjuvant trials were announced at San Antonio, but prior to the FDA formally approving Herceptin for adjuvant treatment for early stage patients. At that time, technically, any use of Herceptin with early stage patients was "off label," and there was more flexibility for the ordering doctor to decide how to use it. My onc is in private practice and not affiliated with a major hospital; he said he left and opened the practice to be able to have more freedom in the way he wanted to practice.
I know I am not alone in this experience, because when I joined this community, there were at least two other women who had also received Herceptin in this manner around that same time. Neither of them has visited the board in years.
Since that time, the FDA has approved Herceptin for use in early stage patients in conjunction with chemotherapy. Because of the way that approval is worded, docs now will not use it w/o chemo and insurers decline coverage for it when used w/o chemo. Until there are trials that demonstrate its effectiveness such that the wording of that approval is changed, the tx I had won't be available. I believe that the Europeans are moving toward such a trial for women like yourself, Jean, with very small tumors, negative nodes and ER+. I stay on the lookout for news of such trials, and rest assured I will post on any that I see.
Hopeful