HER2 Support Group Forums - View Single Post - ER+ breast tumors may involve ER-independent mechanisms of gene activation

Becky · 01-03-2006, 08:15 PM

I am the only Her 2 + person in my support group (there are at least 25 active women but the older survivors do not know their status as 15-25 years ago they were not tested). Our group leader was not hormone positive and she is a 17 year survivor (7 positive nodes). But she does not know if she was Her 2 either or a triple negative.

A 25 yr survivor was on the tamoxifen trial (where she was on an arm that got one year of tamoxifen vs 2 years vs no tamoxifen). She knows she was at least ER + as that was tested as a criteria of the trial (much like Her 2+ is a criteria for Herceptin or Tykerb). I felt that was very interesting in that there was less (readily available) information when going into a trial than there is today (since we have the internet and each other).

I think the paper that this thread started on discuss low confidence and high confidence not in how many receptors are present on the cell surface (ie: 40% ER positive versus 90% ER +) but rather if those receptors bind estrogen strongly or not and if not, then they may differ to other mechanisms for growth (ie: the Her family signaling or other things that we don't know or fully understand yet). This is how I interpret this particular work.

Best wishes

Becky

01-03-2006, 08:15 PM	#12
Becky Senior Member Join Date: Sep 2005 Location: Stockton, NJ Posts: 4,179	I am the only Her 2 + person in my support group (there are at least 25 active women but the older survivors do not know their status as 15-25 years ago they were not tested). Our group leader was not hormone positive and she is a 17 year survivor (7 positive nodes). But she does not know if she was Her 2 either or a triple negative. A 25 yr survivor was on the tamoxifen trial (where she was on an arm that got one year of tamoxifen vs 2 years vs no tamoxifen). She knows she was at least ER + as that was tested as a criteria of the trial (much like Her 2+ is a criteria for Herceptin or Tykerb). I felt that was very interesting in that there was less (readily available) information when going into a trial than there is today (since we have the internet and each other). I think the paper that this thread started on discuss low confidence and high confidence not in how many receptors are present on the cell surface (ie: 40% ER positive versus 90% ER +) but rather if those receptors bind estrogen strongly or not and if not, then they may differ to other mechanisms for growth (ie: the Her family signaling or other things that we don't know or fully understand yet). This is how I interpret this particular work. Best wishes Becky