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Hi:
Im new to this msg board, although I have been on webmd for the last two months posting
inquiries. Thankfully Ive found this board which is more specific to my mothers case. My mom's
history is given below and if anyone can give me some input on the questions below, it would be
greatly appreciated.
1. In Dec 2003, my mother was diagnosed with a 1.6cm lesion in her breast (Stage 1), no lymph
node involvment. ER/PR status - strongly positive. HER statis = positive to the degree 2.0 (I
believe 3.0 is as positive as u can get and 2.0 is borderline) (Question - am I right?)
2. My mother underwent a lumpectomy, radiation to her breast, chemo (Adriamycine) and harmonal treatment (Tamoxifin).
3. On her follow-up (9 weeks ago) , CT scans revealed that the cancer had metastized to the liver and a 2.5 cm lesion was observed in the liver. An FNA and/or biaupsy revealed that these cancer cells were now ER-..The Drs were baffled and concluded that the test is wrong and continued to treat this as an ER+ cancer.they put my mom on Arimidex (instead of Tamxifin)
(Question - Is this normally done - I mean do Doctors treat metastized cancer cells to have the same properties as the primary cancer cells). The doctors also concluded that the cancer cells are still HER + (as per prior tests at stage 1)
4.2 weeks ago a PET scan revealed that there were infact many microscopic lesions in her liver and some in her vertabrae (although the oncs think the PET scan, since its so sensitive caught inflamation of the bones (as mom already had this) and reported it as cancer - again the opinions of four doctors is split - 3 think its not cancer to the bones. and have advised us to concentrate on the liver.
5. An RFA was being considered about a week ago, but the CT scan had to confirm that the other lesions were infact still micro-scopic. As it turns out in 8 weeks these microscopic lesions which were previously undetected by CT were now detected.. to top that the 2.5 cm lesion had grown to 3.1 cm -so an RFa was out of the question. (Question - is this unusual growth I mean in just 8 weeks?)
6. My mother started chemo (Taxol with Herceptin) two days ago
Questions
1. I know many have asked this before - does anyone know the survival time for this. More specifically for liver mets with HER + status? Anyone who has survived this for a long time ...pls pls post...Im in need of inspiring stories...esp ones in which HEr status was + and mets to the liver...would really really apreciate it.
2. Any alternative treatment that has proved successful
3. Any treatment that my mom hasnt yet tried but has proved effective
4. My mother is in Pakistan and does not have access to clinical studies..so if anyone knows of any new drugs on the horizon, pls let me know.
Thats it for now..I apologize for the large post and my many questions...but would really appreciate some or any help.
Thank you and God Bless
Shahyan
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