[Laurel]

It's tough to say, Kathy. The fact that Her-2 is a predictor of recurrence is NOT a new twist by any stretch. However, it does seem to indicate that Herceptin therapy did not preclude all recurrences in the stage 11 and stage 111 patients included in this study. We do know that catching Her-2 before it gets roaming about, meaning before it gets to the lymph, is beneficial, but it does not guarantee that there will not be a recurrence. Remember too, that recent studies have shown that being node neg. at dx does not mean that a patient cannot recur because some do. I think the reality is that Her-2, despite Herceptin, is still deadly in some cases. Remember the study regarding Her-3 and Her-4 that did not respond to Herceptin? There is still much they do not know about Her-2. Read Jean's post about GRB7, yet another twist to the Her-2 puzzle.