32 year old w/ HER2+++/Mitral Valve Prolapse & Herceptin???

jellybean · 07-28-2010, 04:35 PM

Sounds like a great plan. You might consider a liver biopsy before chemo begins. That way you would have an idea of what is in the liver. Otherwise, if it goes away with chemo you might never know.

I had what appeared to be mets in the liver when I was first diagnosed. We did not biopsy them because I had widespread metastases so the biopsy would not change the treatment and we needed to start on chemo ASAP. Well, I had a complete response to the chemo, and to this day my oncologist wonders what the results of a liver biopsy would have been. For her (and me), it is just a matter of intellectual curiosity. For your wife, however, it could have treatment ramifications. For example, if in the unlikely event it is a metastasis, she probably should remain on the Herceptin after the completion of her chemo.

I am not a doctor or a medical professional. Just my two cents.

SunDiego · 07-29-2010, 08:07 AM

Liver mass is in an area that both surgeons separately said could not be biopsied.... if/when it had to be removed it would be full open surgery and they would need to take 40% of liver (only if it has to be taken out.. which we won't know for 2-6 months). They are not overly concerned as of now...

SunDiego · 08-13-2010, 11:53 AM

Unfortunately the PET scan of the liver came back highly metabolic (SUV = 10.8), and the tumor markers were highly elevated (both CA 15-3 and CA 27-29). One was 678 and the other 1003. Not sure how to correlate the results of the CTC (circulating tumor cell) test, but that came back at 0. Seems odd to have mets to liver with CTC 0, no??

Liver biopsy was revisited and now they feel comfortable getting access to the tumor site. It will happen on Monday.

Chemo (TCH) started Aug 9. Will follow markers and re-do PET/CT in a month to see if additional chemo is the call, or if stopping chemo to do a liver resection is recommended.

Either way we're freaked and looking to hear some stories from others with liver met(s). My wife has a single liver met (to be confirmed by biopsy on Monday), that was pretty much found at time of initial breast tumor.

Treatments? Procedures? Surgeries? Regimens? Anything....