HER2 Support Group Forums - View Single Post - Were your mets found through scans/bloodwork?

01-09-2005, 12:11 PM

I actually have mixed feelings about this....

I think routine head MRI's would be a helpful tool, only because gamma knife could be repeated as many times as long as brain tumors were discovered under 5cm. I believe that there are documents indicating about the brain blood barrier and its relationship to Herceptin?...

Once I had a positive head MRI, my onc has been following its radiology's recommendation: to have a MRI follow-up every 3 months. In the beginning, my onc did not really agree with the recommendation, but because they happen to work for the same clinic, she did not object and had no choice, but follow them.

As for other scan tests, I do not think I am having them routinely. My onc arbitrually ordered only at the end of chemo/surgery (Nov '03), again at recurrence (July '04), and finally at recurrence progression in Dec '04 (stepping out of stable disease).

We all know that there is rather a limited number of chemo drugs out there (for the time being); I only wish that they could be re-used over time, just like gamma knife. The idea of prolonging the good quailty of life and saving chemos for really necessary times does make sense to me (somewhat, actually), but what I am really confused is about secondary rounds of chemo putting into remission. How could we know if the next new chemo could put us into remission? If we had relatively slight disease progression, and the chemo did not work, we then would lose our "turn" being on this specific chemo in the long run. This is my current question this month for getting "casual" 2nd opinions (thanks to my relatives; they have network contacts at Harvard & Sloan Kettering).

It is just too bad that our body would know how to alter and become immune to such drugs...

I understand what Maureen & Audrey are saying. I think that there are 2 different types of personality out there: one is to avoid possible upsetting scenarios until they actually occur, another is to face an obstacle upfront in full steam. The 1st type just find it easier to deal with their disease at maintaning a good quality of life. The 2nd type is just very strong to approach the possible worst as well as control their quality of life simultaneously. Because we each deal with our disease very differently and individually, I think that having routine scans is going to be a controversy for a long while.

When I finally make a definite opinion about having routine body scans, I will let you know!

01-09-2005, 12:11 PM	#12
jojo Guest Posts: n/a	I actually have mixed feelings about this.... I think routine head MRI's would be a helpful tool, only because gamma knife could be repeated as many times as long as brain tumors were discovered under 5cm. I believe that there are documents indicating about the brain blood barrier and its relationship to Herceptin?... Once I had a positive head MRI, my onc has been following its radiology's recommendation: to have a MRI follow-up every 3 months. In the beginning, my onc did not really agree with the recommendation, but because they happen to work for the same clinic, she did not object and had no choice, but follow them. As for other scan tests, I do not think I am having them routinely. My onc arbitrually ordered only at the end of chemo/surgery (Nov '03), again at recurrence (July '04), and finally at recurrence progression in Dec '04 (stepping out of stable disease). We all know that there is rather a limited number of chemo drugs out there (for the time being); I only wish that they could be re-used over time, just like gamma knife. The idea of prolonging the good quailty of life and saving chemos for really necessary times does make sense to me (somewhat, actually), but what I am really confused is about secondary rounds of chemo putting into remission. How could we know if the next new chemo could put us into remission? If we had relatively slight disease progression, and the chemo did not work, we then would lose our "turn" being on this specific chemo in the long run. This is my current question this month for getting "casual" 2nd opinions (thanks to my relatives; they have network contacts at Harvard & Sloan Kettering). It is just too bad that our body would know how to alter and become immune to such drugs... I understand what Maureen & Audrey are saying. I think that there are 2 different types of personality out there: one is to avoid possible upsetting scenarios until they actually occur, another is to face an obstacle upfront in full steam. The 1st type just find it easier to deal with their disease at maintaning a good quality of life. The 2nd type is just very strong to approach the possible worst as well as control their quality of life simultaneously. Because we each deal with our disease very differently and individually, I think that having routine scans is going to be a controversy for a long while. When I finally make a definite opinion about having routine body scans, I will let you know!