[AlaskaAngel]

One reason I did the poll was to get more of an grasp on just what percentage of HER2's would tend to be premenopausal at diagnosis.

The poll would indicate that there are likely to be a much higher percentage of patients who are HER2 positive and who are going to end up on tamoxifen at least initially, than would be true for the larger group of all bc. At least some patients may be helped into menopause by ovarian ablation (surgical or chemical). Very, very tough choices for those in the 20-30 and 30-40 age range to make.

There seems to be little if any effort made to allow each woman to consider this particular issue when making the choice of treatment. But I have to say that this appears to me to be a very important issue for HER2 positives to consider -- whether or not most medical providers are actively talking about it with patients.

The other point that is important for HER2's to consider is the effectiveness of tamoxifen. My understanding is that in the entire range of bc (i.e., not just HER2's), tamoxifen works less than 50% of the time.

I wonder what percentage of the group of all bc patients for whom tamoxifen does not work "happen" to be HER2-positive, even HER2++. It is interesting that this does not appear to be the case if one is also ER+ and PR+.

My feeling is that this is important enough that there should at least be some effort made to provide some information about this that is specific to HER2 positives in the package insert for tamoxifen.

AlaskaAngel