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Hi Lani
I know the private nurse who gave me my herceptin at home for the first four months I was on it was well aware that the herceptin needed to be kept cold. I can't speak for how things are done throughout the NHS, but at the NHS hospital the treatments seemed to be kept down in the pharmacy until patient/space was available.
One thing that needs to be kept in mind is that the HERA trial was rather different from in the US. For one thing, the European standard when HERA was done was FEC, which a recent Canadian studied showed was much more effective than the 3 weekly AC followed by 3 weekly taxol regime used in the US studies. For another, the herceptin was not given with the chemo.
I do think that more all-encompassing standards of the value of a human life need to be taken into account. The question is who will pay the bill (and I wouldn't want the really cost effective stuff like diabetes care or maternity care should get squeezed).
It is true that the time costs of cancer treatment are considerable, but isn't that one of the key reasons why shorter herceptin treatments are needed? As someone with a small child and a demanding salaried job, I really struggled with all the appointments. Not to mention that the MUGAs meant that I had to run away from my child at times because I was too radioactive (not pleasant). And then there was the herceptin-related fatigue, which did not make me the best of mothers at times.
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