View Single Post
Old 04-08-2010, 03:31 PM   #3
StephN
Senior Member
 
StephN's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: Misty woods of WA State
Posts: 4,128
Wink Re: Feedback please..

Fabulous news, Emilie! Cancer, shmancer, huh?

I will offer that having had stage IV liver mets myself, I would tend to want to stay on the Herceptin longer than your onc is suggesting.

I, too, had good response to my treatment, but did stay on the Herceptin monotherapy for many years after finding NED. Maybe I overdid it, but that was the recommendation at the time.

However, I would not want to feel undertreated, knowing that the cancer stem cells can still hide out. Maybe at least a year would be a better bet at eradicating any cells in blood or lymph that are not showing up as a group/tumor that shows on a scan.
__________________
"When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest." H.D. Thoreau
Live in the moment.

MY STORY SO FAR ~~~~
Found suspicious lump 9/2000
Lumpectomy, then node dissection and port placement
Stage IIB, 8 pos nodes of 18, Grade 3, ER & PR -
Adriamycin 12 weekly, taxotere 4 rounds
36 rads - very little burning
3 mos after rads liver full of tumors, Stage IV Jan 2002, one spot on sternum
Weekly Taxol, Navelbine, Herceptin for 27 rounds to NED!
2003 & 2004 no active disease - 3 weekly Herceptin + Zometa
Jan 2005 two mets to brain - Gamma Knife on Jan 18
All clear until treated cerebellum spot showing activity on Jan 2006 brain MRI & brain PET
Brain surgery on Feb 9, 2006 - no cancer, 100% radiation necrosis - tumor was still dying
Continue as NED while on Herceptin & quarterly Zometa
Fall-2006 - off Zometa - watching one small brain spot (scar?)
2007 - spot/scar in brain stable - finished anticoagulation therapy for clot along my port-a-catheter - 3 angioplasties to unblock vena cava
2008 - Brain and body still NED! Port removed and scans in Dec.
Dec 2008 - stop Herceptin - Vaccine Trial at U of W begun in Oct. of 2011
STILL NED everywhere in Feb 2014 - on wing & prayer
7/14 - Started twice yearly Zometa for my bones
Jan. 2015 checkup still shows NED
2015 Neuropathy in feet - otherwise all OK - still NED.
Same news for 2016 and all of 2017.
Nov of 2017 - had small skin cancer removed from my face. Will have Zometa end of Jan. 2018.
StephN is offline   Reply With Quote