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Lani · 05-01-2006, 10:45 AM

Your oncologists view that finding mets early makes no difference is probably based on statistics generated by ALL breast cancers that metastasize, not just her2neu+ breast cancers. Her2neu+ breast cancers behave differently (worse when not treated with herceptin) and their natural history--how long they take to recur, where and how often they metastasize seems to be altered by Herceptin so it seems NO ONE KNOWS.

Someone posted an interesting editorial by Dr. Hortobagyi of MD Anderson saying (even before Herceptin) he knew of a few patients with longer term survival who had only "minimal" mets and the question of whether to try to find mets earlier (and therefore smaller) should probably be readdressed. Hope I quoted this correctly. Wouldn't mind if someone reposted it.

Hope this helps!

05-01-2006, 10:45 AM	#2
Lani Senior Member Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 4,778	As far as I can see... Your oncologists view that finding mets early makes no difference is probably based on statistics generated by ALL breast cancers that metastasize, not just her2neu+ breast cancers. Her2neu+ breast cancers behave differently (worse when not treated with herceptin) and their natural history--how long they take to recur, where and how often they metastasize seems to be altered by Herceptin so it seems NO ONE KNOWS. Someone posted an interesting editorial by Dr. Hortobagyi of MD Anderson saying (even before Herceptin) he knew of a few patients with longer term survival who had only "minimal" mets and the question of whether to try to find mets earlier (and therefore smaller) should probably be readdressed. Hope I quoted this correctly. Wouldn't mind if someone reposted it. Hope this helps!