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Hi Merridith: I am so sorry that you are in such distress. I understand your frustration...I was pulled from a clinical trial because of heart damage after 4 months when I was to have recieved Herceptin for a year. I am at Stage III...3 tumors in the same breast and what the pathologist termed "extensive lymphatic involvement"....a prime candidate for disease progression to Stage IV. So I was definately upset when I could no longer get Herceptin. I frankly felt like I had been handed a death sentence. I also feared the effects of prolonged chemo and the quality of life I would be experiencing. I thank God I stumbled on to this site because I have read SO MANY positive stories from people who have progressed to Stage IV and have gone through many different regimens to halt their cancer and still been able to retain a good quality of life and are still here years later to post about it. This has changed my original outlook from a very negative one to a much more positive one. I hope to someday participate in a vaccine clinical trial but for now I will just continue to be vigilant about how my body feels. I have been NED for the last 2 years and my scans in June came back clear. Remember, this is without the benifit of Herceptin. So, try to realize that some people are going to do well WITHOUT Herceptin and others are going to do poorly even when they have it. As mentioned in other posts...there are other treatments/drugs other than Herceptin for those of us that over express the HER2 gene. Perhaps you could see if you can get into one of these alternate trials. I hope things get better for you in the future. Take Care, Linda
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