Stage I ER/PR+ Her 2+ No node involvement

[astrid]

I am also triple positive with no node involvement. I am still scared because as I have said before, my sister was ER+ PR+ and had no node involvement and died 2 ½ years after diagnosis so it can travel into the blood stream. She was only 38 and her cancer was very aggressive and they did not have Herceptin at the time. I do not remember what grade her tumor was, but I assume it was grade 3. I am grade 3 also.



With my family history, young age (47) and tumor grade and size, two ONCs recommended Chemo. I entered a clinical trial for node negative women. This clinical trial compared AC and T as stand alone drugs. The standard treatment for node negative women with tumors greater than 1.5 CM (mine was 1.8 cm) is 4 rounds of AC followed by 4 rounds of Taxol administered every three weeks. Herceptin can be give at the same time as Taxol, but it can also be administered after chemo and radiation. Hercepetin should never be given with AC. AC and Herceptin are both extremely hard on your heart. Anyway, the arm of the clinical trial that I entered was Taxol as a standalone drug administered every 2 week for 6 rounds. I than had the usual 35 radiation treatments and then began and am still going through my year of Herceptin (started mid June) and I am on Tamoxifen.



I also was skeptical about chemo because of my sister, but the studies show that women treated with chemo have a much better success rate for DFS than women who do not take chemo. The positive results are NOT in the first five years. The rates of DFS double at 15 years. I want to be around for 15 more years so I was willing to take the chemo and maybe I was lucky with Taxol only, but I feel great and felt pretty good though out my chemo. I have NOT lost my libido and I was very worried about that. In fact now that I eat better and exercise better, I feel better than before my diagnosis and I love my 1 inch curly hair. It is sooo easy.

[AlaskaAngel]

I don't think this discussion has to be one that separates people into just 2 sides of a sensitive issue, black and white, and I hope that it isn't offensive to raise very real questions about who benefits and who doesn't from adding chemo.

I wish that none of us had to make these awful choices.

I don't want to lose sight of the information that tells us that trastuzumab is more effective when chemotherapy is added to it. That is a weapon we didn't have before, and should be used for those who are most likely to benefit from it.

But because both the AI's and Herceptin were not commonly available even just 5 years ago I have to ask whether statistics about 5 years ago or 15 years ago showing a success rate for DFS are meaningful for women with HER2 positive HR positive bc, particularly those who are 50 or over.

In addition, as I see it there is one other huge difference for those in this group who are currently diagnosed. They stand to have the choice of using even newer drugs, newer methods of individualized analysis of their particular disease characteristics, and newer and better ways of analyzing whether they remain NED.

To me those things are a really, really big deal.

AlaskaAngel

[Becky]

Maybe this is a chat room topic???????????? Let me know. I love the interesting ones that have more than just one opinion.


AA knows me well. (I miss you)

Hugs and kisses

Becky

[AlaskaAngel]

Hi Becky,



I think the chats are great for opening our heads to wider perspectives, especially since there is so much information out there that it is hard to see everything on our own. I've missed them but am grateful that they will continue. This topic is one that probably does need some experienced moderation, whether discussed on its own or as a subtopic of one of the broader ones suggested.

I'm still hoping we can get some Aussies online for some chats and hear more about how things are going with them... and VERY saddened to hear about our loss of the croc hunter and environmentalist.

AlaskaAngel