[hutchibk]

Shonda et al, recurrence that is in a distant place (in the torso, brain, an organ, etc), which is not strictly limited to a "local" location" such as breast tissue or an axillary lymph node is called metastasis, and is considered stage IV.

Now this does not at all mean that it is the end of the road. I have been stage IV metastatic for almost 6 years, my first recurrence was in the lungs... I am also what is called "heavily pretreated" meaning that I have had 8 different chemos and 3 different anti-estrogen drugs at this point (as well as 4 different radiation treatments to the brain, pituitary and the rear pelvic bone), and I still have it knocked back and very stable. We only see one small active spot on my adrenal gland at this time, and a small change in anti-estrogen treatment (from aromasin to tamoxifen) seems to be gaining us ground on that spot based on dropping tumor markers. I am also on a combination of Tykerb and Herceptin and have been for almost 2 years.

The key for us HER2 surthrivors is to know that there are a lot of new treatments in the pipeline in trials and the researchers are working feverishly to find us more options and potentially a cure. As my Onc always says, we still haven't scratched the surface of several treatments that we are keeping in our back pockets. I am healthy and living a normal life as a stage IV metastatic patient.

I suggest you look to San Antonio or MD Anderson in Houston for an Onc who is maybe more tapped into the HER2 advances and aware of upcoming trials.