HER2 Support Group Forums - View Single Post - Herceptin for HER2+++'s who have never had it

06-11-2005, 06:19 PM

It's understandable that people who didn't combine their chemo with Herceptin feel like they missed the boat, but they can still receive single agent Herceptin for say a year and still benefit. It's the nature of the disease that there is always going to be improvements over the therapy you received, which is a good thing. Why don't the oncologists bring everyone back and give them Herceptin plus chemo to try and gain the synergistic effect of the combination? Your first shot is your best shot while the cancer cells are still naive to chemotherapy, they become resistant to chemo if you don't get them all the first time. So, they could bring you back and pump you full of toxic chemo and Herceptin at considerable risk to your quality of life and expense with a small chance of cleaning up all of the residual disease. In the not so distant past, (the 90's) more chemo was better with high dose chemotherapy and multiple regimens of drugs, and they found patients really fared no better than those who had a single regimen of moderate dose chemotherapy. So I think Herceptin must be in the mix with a Taxane for first line adjuvant treatment, as it shouldn't be combined with AC. I do think Herceptin may turn out to be beneficial as a long term treatment option as we see with the hormonal therapy beyond 12 mos., say 2 to 5 years. Only problem is the cost and inconvenience of having regular infusions. I don't think the side effect profile is really much more risk than say Tamoxifen with blood clots and endometrial cancer or the A.I.'s with osteoporosis and joint pains as long as heart function is continually monitored. We'll see when more data matures if the benefits continue beyond one year.

06-11-2005, 06:19 PM	#2
_Scott_ Guest Posts: n/a	It's understandable that people who didn't combine their chemo with Herceptin feel like they missed the boat, but they can still receive single agent Herceptin for say a year and still benefit. It's the nature of the disease that there is always going to be improvements over the therapy you received, which is a good thing. Why don't the oncologists bring everyone back and give them Herceptin plus chemo to try and gain the synergistic effect of the combination? Your first shot is your best shot while the cancer cells are still naive to chemotherapy, they become resistant to chemo if you don't get them all the first time. So, they could bring you back and pump you full of toxic chemo and Herceptin at considerable risk to your quality of life and expense with a small chance of cleaning up all of the residual disease. In the not so distant past, (the 90's) more chemo was better with high dose chemotherapy and multiple regimens of drugs, and they found patients really fared no better than those who had a single regimen of moderate dose chemotherapy. So I think Herceptin must be in the mix with a Taxane for first line adjuvant treatment, as it shouldn't be combined with AC. I do think Herceptin may turn out to be beneficial as a long term treatment option as we see with the hormonal therapy beyond 12 mos., say 2 to 5 years. Only problem is the cost and inconvenience of having regular infusions. I don't think the side effect profile is really much more risk than say Tamoxifen with blood clots and endometrial cancer or the A.I.'s with osteoporosis and joint pains as long as heart function is continually monitored. We'll see when more data matures if the benefits continue beyond one year.