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Terry Kolhede · 01-31-2006, 10:02 PM

Hello everyone... wanted to give you all an update on the subject of taking herceptin 2+ yrs after Chemo. To summarize my wife's situation.
• Diagnosis in 5/03 (reoccurence of breast cancer in same breast after 12 yrs!- characterized as a separate occurence) This time mastectomy (couldn't check nodes this time) A/C chemo and on Arimidex since 12/03. All is OK up to now. She is Her2+
• Contacted oncologist last April after all the Herceptin news,and asked shouldn't she be on it. At that time she said NO. You're nearly 2 yrs out so your prognosis is better already, to late after chemo,etc.
• Asked the question again... she said tends not to recommend it but said "I am willing to give her the herceptin every 3 weeks for a year prophylactically as long as you are aware that the potential side-effects may equal the potential benefit in treatment 2.5 years out from the diagnosis"
She said if we want to do this, then she'll have to do a heart scan (of course) and PET Scan. The PET Scan freaks me out (the male trait of what you don't know won't hurt you) I hate to have opened this 'can of worms' but I'm just worried about the aggressiveness of HER2+ tumors and felt the potential benefit outweighs the heart risk (which seems to be manageable)
What do you guys think???

01-31-2006, 10:02 PM	#16
Terry Kolhede Junior Member Join Date: Jan 2006 Posts: 4	Late stage use of Herceptin Hello everyone... wanted to give you all an update on the subject of taking herceptin 2+ yrs after Chemo. To summarize my wife's situation. • Diagnosis in 5/03 (reoccurence of breast cancer in same breast after 12 yrs!- characterized as a separate occurence) This time mastectomy (couldn't check nodes this time) A/C chemo and on Arimidex since 12/03. All is OK up to now. She is Her2+ • Contacted oncologist last April after all the Herceptin news,and asked shouldn't she be on it. At that time she said NO. You're nearly 2 yrs out so your prognosis is better already, to late after chemo,etc. • Asked the question again... she said tends not to recommend it but said "I am willing to give her the herceptin every 3 weeks for a year prophylactically as long as you are aware that the potential side-effects may equal the potential benefit in treatment 2.5 years out from the diagnosis" She said if we want to do this, then she'll have to do a heart scan (of course) and PET Scan. The PET Scan freaks me out (the male trait of what you don't know won't hurt you) I hate to have opened this 'can of worms' but I'm just worried about the aggressiveness of HER2+ tumors and felt the potential benefit outweighs the heart risk (which seems to be manageable) What do you guys think???