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Hi all,
I went with Rachel to her regular oncologist check up yesterday. All is well with her.
It was an interesting appointment because it was the first one back with her original oncologist: this is a woman who Rachel had a great relationship with but who, about two years ago, refused to give Rachel herceptin off-label. She did, to her credit, give us the name back then of the guy who finally did give Rachel the year's worth of herceptin. She's a good doc, but a real traditionalist when it comes to waiting for full results from clinical trials.
Anyway, she started the appointment very warmly saying how glad she was that Rachel had left her behind for a doc who was more "flexible."
When she and Rachel got done with their various discussions I asked her the question about what she was doing with respect to women who didn't get herceptin with or right after chemo. She said that she was just at a meeting of about 30 Boston area oncologists, many from the biggest research places, blah blah blah and George Sledge was there talking to them about the trials.
So anyway, they did an informal poll to see where folks stood on this issue and she said that there was no consensus across the board but that Sledge and most of the rest agreed that they would actively try to get women who were within six months of finishing chemo to come back in to start herceptin.
This doc (who I think was really changed in some fundamental ways by this trial) said that she personally would happily give herceptin to anyone within a year of finishing chemo. And then she paused and said "And if someone was 15 months out and really wanted it I wouldn't say no."
So that's just one person but I hope that all you folks out there who want to get herceptin post chemo and haven't yet will keep trying docs until you find the right one.
All the best,
Jeff
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