New Here

Hello everybody. I just registered here. I have not used a message board before. Looks like breast cancer gets rid of the shyness in everyone.

I am 48 years old. I was diagnosed with HER2+++ ER negative, PR negative, P53 95%, breast cancer after finding a lump myself. I had a lumpectomy with sentinel node biopsy three weeks ago, then axillary node dissection last Monday after one of the sentinel nodes came back positive with microscopic cells. My tumor was 1.6 x 1.3 cm. All other scans and x-rays were negative. My HER2/neu number was 100. They say it's not metastatic yet. At least they haven't found it.

I am scared to death. I want my life back. It was boring but it was mine and it didn't include cancer. Now the oncologist wants to start chemotherapy with Adriamycin and Cytoxan followed by taxotere and wants me to consider a clinical trial that would be the same except for the addition of Xeloda along with the taxotere in one group - I would know if I was in that group or not.

I am apprehensive and don't know what to do about this clinical trial. It seems they are really only using Xeloda for advanced cancer outside of clinical trials. Are any of you who don't have advanced cancer taking Xeloda, or any of you taking it along with taxotere? If so, how are you doing with it?

He is not talking about Herceptin because he says it is not FDA approved except for metastatic breast cancer, but by the time I finish the Adriamycin and Cytoxan it might be approved and I might be able to get it. Should I push for him to give it "off label?"

Looking forward to hearing back from you.

Mary Ann