Why HER2/neu is Unique

[Joe]

Very interesting article from the New England Journal of Medicine


Warmest Regards
Joe

[Alice]

Thank you for posting this article.It again reminds me that as much as we know about this disease and others, the more we have to learn about the human body and how it works.I often wonder what roll the mind and spirit play in all of this?

[Gina]

The part I liked best was in the discussion of the "myriad possible mechanisms of action of trastuzumab" which included the area that I think boosting immune system function while taking it highlights and that is the extracellular effect of Herceptin which the article states works "possibly in mediating antibody-dependent immune recognition." It is just intuition of course, but I feel that after the Herceptin tags the her-2 over-expressing cells, my immune system then can see "the cancer" that otherwise it would just by-pass as non-threatening and once the cells are made "visible" to the immune system, the cell removal system kicks in and the cells are targeted for destruction and then, taken out. So by taking Herceptin and boosting the immune system rather than supressing or dampening it, you get double action thanks to the herceptin binding to the her-2 and starting apoptosis and down-regulation and then you get a whole army of your own immune system to come in and clean up all the tumor/lesion debris. That is why it is not unusual to see whole lesions and tumors literally melt away on the CT while on Herceptin..or at least, so it seems to me after using it so many years and watching it do its thing, again and again and again.

Thanks so much!! It was great to meet you and Christine at the Cure conference...I hope our paths will get to cross again soon. Also, it was great news about Genentech highlighting this website in the literature that was distributed to Lisa at her oncology office. I have not seen any such packet but will keep my eyes peeled. Joe and Christine, we all can not thank you enough for providing this valuable service to us. The access the site provides to REAL time her-2 and herceptin information is unparalleled as far as I can tell. NO other site even comes close.

Take care and keep up the good work,
Gina

[athena453]

Great article, Joe. Thank you!

[suzan w]

thanks for this article...and for all the work you do for this great support group!!!

[Roz]

I was interested in the article's suggestion that anyone who is ER+ may become resistant. If one is taking AIs does this help lower the chances of resistance? Any other ER+'ers out there worried about this suggestion of resistance, or can someone enlighten me?

[saleboat]

"So by taking Herceptin and boosting the immune system rather than supressing or dampening it, you get double action thanks to the herceptin binding to the her-2 and starting apoptosis and down-regulation and ..."

Hi Gina and everyone-- I just wanted to pass along something I learned at a talk given by Larry Norton, who some might know is a leading researcher on bc and responsible for all bc treatment at Sloan Kettering. He said many interesting things, but he also pointed out where 'logical' treatments have been wrong before-- the radical masectomy and high dose chemo being two. He also said that while the 'logical' thing many people think to do to combat cancer is to boost the immune system. He was extremely wary of this, and pointed to a couple of facts-- the fact that women who are put on immune suppressant drugs after a kidney transplant have a much lower rate of bc than would be expected-- and that inflammation, which is something that can result from an immune system response, also seems to have a role in cancer's growth.

He did not have any recommendations, but that there are some herbal products being marketed as immune system 'boosters' and that should be avoided. Just to be clear, he spoke about all of this within the context of trying to figure out the different pathways in the development of cancer, and while a healthy immune system is important, 'boosting' it may do more harm than good.

Hope this is helpful.

Jen