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Hi Cheryl. If you are IIb and HER2+++ and ER/PR+ like me and have decided it makes sense not to do Herceptin now, and I'm stage I node-negative, maybe there is some rationale to being left out of the group who can access Herceptin. I'm hoping I can find an onc who would spend the time to help me go over it to get a better understanding.
For me the numbers on recurrence don't seem all that reassuring. A report I have from 2004 states that 17% of those with bc (not limited to HER2) recur within the first 5 years; so that means 83% recur after 5 years. So I don't think much of the rationale that most of us who do recur, recur within the first 3 years. Nobody has been collecting data long enough or accurately enough on HER2 positives to convince me that most of us who recur, recur within the first 3 years. And the same report I have tells me that between 40% to 50% of those who are in Stages I through III do eventually recur, although that number is improving. That also would mean that 50% to 60% of bc survivors in Stages I through III do not eventually recur.
I think there is a pretty good chance that all that the ugliness of the chemo I had could turn out to be just what I was promised it would be -- a way to delay recurrence but not stop it.
But I wonder what convinced you.
AlaskaAngel
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