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09-10-2005, 03:11 PM

I do not believe all Her 2+ women relapse (even when Herceptin was not available to be used in early breast cancer) and here's why.

Let's say you are Stage IIA and you look up the 10 year disease free survival which I think is 71% (which means these ladies took treatment that was probably cutting edge 10 years ago and probably didn't contain Adriamycin then either so survival rates 10 years from now will be even better but we will use this number). This mean that 29 out of 100 women have a big problem but not all of those women are HER 2 women. Out of 100 women, 25 are Her 2 and not all of them are in the 29 who have a big problem. You might want to say that 12 or 13 might be Her 2 and then you have your triple negative women (not ER, not PR not HER 2 - science hasn't told them their driver yet) and then the "regulars" (ER/PR +).

So absolutely not that Her 2 is never cured the first time around without Herceptin. You HAVE to remember that in our day to day life and our virtual lives, we hear about the people who recurred and the women who passed away. We don't hear about the millions of women who lived and are living.

When I first was diagnosed, I just remembered death - the couple of women I knew or heard of that died from breast cancer. Then so many women called me to tell me that they had it 5 years ago, 10 years ago or others told me about their friends who are still going strong.

You have heard about your friend because she had a recurrence. How many women in your town had BC and didn't recur (and some of them are triple negative or Her 2 whether they know it or not). I have a client who is a 17 year disease free survivor (at the time had 22 affected nodes) and was not ER/PR positive but was not Her 2 tested at the time because they didn't do it then. So she's either Her 2 or a triple negative and she is here.

Bad news travels fast - that's a fact because it is something to gossip about. Being alive (long term) may be what's on our minds, but for the rest of the world its a moot point - they want to know who died today, whose husband left who for whom etc (you get my point).

I can say don't worry, be happy so I will. Don't worry, be happy, live and love well. Everybody dies and nobody knows when so enjoy yourself.

Warmest regards,

Becky

09-10-2005, 03:11 PM	#4
Becky Guest Posts: n/a	I do not believe all Her 2+ women relapse (even when Herceptin was not available to be used in early breast cancer) and here's why. Let's say you are Stage IIA and you look up the 10 year disease free survival which I think is 71% (which means these ladies took treatment that was probably cutting edge 10 years ago and probably didn't contain Adriamycin then either so survival rates 10 years from now will be even better but we will use this number). This mean that 29 out of 100 women have a big problem but not all of those women are HER 2 women. Out of 100 women, 25 are Her 2 and not all of them are in the 29 who have a big problem. You might want to say that 12 or 13 might be Her 2 and then you have your triple negative women (not ER, not PR not HER 2 - science hasn't told them their driver yet) and then the "regulars" (ER/PR +). So absolutely not that Her 2 is never cured the first time around without Herceptin. You HAVE to remember that in our day to day life and our virtual lives, we hear about the people who recurred and the women who passed away. We don't hear about the millions of women who lived and are living. When I first was diagnosed, I just remembered death - the couple of women I knew or heard of that died from breast cancer. Then so many women called me to tell me that they had it 5 years ago, 10 years ago or others told me about their friends who are still going strong. You have heard about your friend because she had a recurrence. How many women in your town had BC and didn't recur (and some of them are triple negative or Her 2 whether they know it or not). I have a client who is a 17 year disease free survivor (at the time had 22 affected nodes) and was not ER/PR positive but was not Her 2 tested at the time because they didn't do it then. So she's either Her 2 or a triple negative and she is here. Bad news travels fast - that's a fact because it is something to gossip about. Being alive (long term) may be what's on our minds, but for the rest of the world its a moot point - they want to know who died today, whose husband left who for whom etc (you get my point). I can say don't worry, be happy so I will. Don't worry, be happy, live and love well. Everybody dies and nobody knows when so enjoy yourself. Warmest regards, Becky