? for Lani and any other propeller heads...lol

[Tom]

I have been wondering about something for some time now. As many of you know, ny Mom has had no conventional chemotherapy of any kind, receiving only Herceptin and radiation therapy. Now, the Herceptin has been temporarily stopped due to a precipitous drop in her LVEF (69%->49% over three month period).

Considering that the primary action of Herceptin is to block the HER2 oncoprotein receptor site on the cell surface, it seems to me that the existing HER2+ cells wil be free to resume growing and dividing when there is a lack of the monoclonal antibody to block those receptor sites.

I understand that one possible side benefit of Herceptin is to trigger the immune system to attack and kill the HER2+ cells, but this has not been proven. Therefore, I might assume that since Mom has had no other chemotherapy that would normally kill off remaining malignant cells, these cells should be a matter of serious concern.

Simply put, how worried should I be that Mom get back to Herceptin infusions as quickly as possible? A second question would be whether she falls into any criteria that would allow her to participate in the EAP for Tykerb. I am going to call GSK tomorrow and hopefully get the answer to the last question soon.

Tom