HER2 Support Group Forums - View Single Post - New thread--how many long-lived Stage IVs are hormone receptor positive?

Lani · 03-27-2006, 04:27 PM

I am not "saying" anything. I have never seen a study that included patients from a lot of different institutions pooled together that looked at the long-lived survivors on Herceptin. I doubt there is one.

The North American studies of adjuvant herceptin (2 which were merged) and the non-No. American HERA studies seemed to show the same benefit of Herceptin plus chemo (even though the chemos were EXTREMELY DIFFERENT) between her2+ patients and her2- patients--they all had about a 51% decrease in recurrence IN THE SHORT-RUN as many patients in the study were only a few years after their breast cancer diagnosis. BUT THESE WERE DONE ON PATIENTS WITH EARLY NON-METASTATIC BREAST CANCER,and their results continue to evolve...

I have started a thread to see if those who ALREADY were Stage IV (METASTATIC) AND treated with herceptin, ie, the wonderful living legends who have beaten the odds, to see if there seems to be any trend in Herceptin's effectiveness between the hormonally positive patients and the hormonally negative patients.

I have NO PRECONCEIVED IDEAS--JUST CURIOSITY!

As I said, I don't even think the heads of breast cancer at MSK, DanaFarber, MD Anderson, etc know the answer to this one--and we will have a scewed result as it will only include those who have discovered and participate in this forum and have been reading of late. It will obviously not have the participation of those who have NOT done well.

But maybe it will tell us something and maybe we can get GENENTECH INTERESTED IN FUNDING SOME biostatistics student or inhouse summer intern in completing the project.

03-27-2006, 04:27 PM	#5
Lani Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 4,783	Sherri I am not "saying" anything. I have never seen a study that included patients from a lot of different institutions pooled together that looked at the long-lived survivors on Herceptin. I doubt there is one. The North American studies of adjuvant herceptin (2 which were merged) and the non-No. American HERA studies seemed to show the same benefit of Herceptin plus chemo (even though the chemos were EXTREMELY DIFFERENT) between her2+ patients and her2- patients--they all had about a 51% decrease in recurrence IN THE SHORT-RUN as many patients in the study were only a few years after their breast cancer diagnosis. BUT THESE WERE DONE ON PATIENTS WITH EARLY NON-METASTATIC BREAST CANCER,and their results continue to evolve... I have started a thread to see if those who ALREADY were Stage IV (METASTATIC) AND treated with herceptin, ie, the wonderful living legends who have beaten the odds, to see if there seems to be any trend in Herceptin's effectiveness between the hormonally positive patients and the hormonally negative patients. I have NO PRECONCEIVED IDEAS--JUST CURIOSITY! As I said, I don't even think the heads of breast cancer at MSK, DanaFarber, MD Anderson, etc know the answer to this one--and we will have a scewed result as it will only include those who have discovered and participate in this forum and have been reading of late. It will obviously not have the participation of those who have NOT done well. But maybe it will tell us something and maybe we can get GENENTECH INTERESTED IN FUNDING SOME biostatistics student or inhouse summer intern in completing the project.