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"tried and true" and how clinical trials work
This is indeed old news. Dr Charles Vogel out of Florida published on treating METASTATIC her2 positive breast cancer with herceptin monotherapy long ago. The thinking was, if the patients were going to die within 1-2 years anyway and there disease was extensive and debilitating, why not spare them the chemo. I have heard him speak at conferences. He has been a pioneer in treating breast cancer patients with different chemos (vinorelbine, gemcitabine, capecitabine) long before others were branching out from the "tried and true" anthracyclines and taxanes. Considered something of a trail-blazer and pioneer, look up his publications in Pub Med.
There have been no trials of adjuvant Herceptin monotherapy, as all clinical trials have to give patients the "best available treatment" plus the investigational agent. Trials have seemed to show concomitant chemo and Herceptin better than sequential chemo and Herceptin, so most oncologists feel it would be exceptionally irresponsible and immoral to deny a patient the best possible (known) treatment.
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