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Hi there:
The statistics in AlaskaAngel's posted topic made perfect sense to me. The statistics that you quote don't pretaine to the HER2+++ sub-group of breast cancer patients, but to the full body of all bc patients.
The HER2 sub-group stats are much less positive. If you have a small tumour and no nodes (as I have) then your statistical chance of surviving 5 years is about 2 in 3. The outward going stats for 20-year survivors is about 30%. (Yes I know that the treatments have changed in this timeframe and don't apply to us- especially those diagnosed & treated within the last 5 years, but those are the current survivor stats)
Given this additional information, I think that it is very important that bc patients diagnosed as adjuvant push for herceptin.
What interests me is that herceptin by itself isn't nearly as effective as the herceptin/taxol combo. Thats where you get the FULL 52% survivorship benefit.
I am thinking about asking for the double barrel for a couple of rounds....
I'm 1.25 years out from chemo....I've already been forced into menopause so I haven't get any fertility to preserve and I'm back in shape from my chemo rounds plus I found that it didn't bother me in the end to wear my hair comando... As far as I'm concerned, it's get it completely gone (the micro-mets cancer) now to avoid 30% chance of using herceptin in the palliative setting.
Regards,
Merridith
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