[Carol Ann]

Spitfire, I apologize if I didn't explain what I meant very well.

HER2+++ cancers are more likely to return after treatment than the cancers that are not. That is what I meant in the beginning sentence. It isn't your body that lacks anything, the HER2+++ cancer cell over expresses the HER2 protein on the cell, which makes it replicate more quickly. I don't think anyone knows why some tumors are HER2 positive and others are not. The ones that are HER2+++ are in the minority, 1 out of 5 or so.

Any breast cancer can metastasize many years after initial treatment. But given that HER2 positive is considered more likely to come back, yes I would think it makes a difference.

Dr Slamon, who developed Herceptin, has said that Herceptin has greatly decreased the odds of HER2+++ cancer coming back, by about 50%. He spoke at a conference in Scotland not long ago and said that most will recur if it is going to happen within the first 2 or 3 years after treatment. Again, that doesn't mean it still can't happen after that point.

Additionally, cancer cells can switch from negative to positive, and vice versa. This happened to someone I knew ... their original tumor was HER2 neg, so no Herceptin. It came back metastatic in her liver HER2+++. There is someone on this forum, Michka from France (I think) who is metastatic but her tumor has mutated and isn't HER2+++ any more.

I have never heard that we HER2+++ ladies are more prone to any particular illness ... but that is a good question, maybe someone else has some info. And as a general rule, yes once you have been diagnosed with cancer, you are more prone to be diagnosed with other cancers as well. Whether HER2 +++ increases the raised odds or not, I am not sure.

Carol Ann