Stopping Herceptin after 3 years

[tnbelle22]

Hi! I was diagnosed in 2001 with 2 nodes involved and had 6 chemo treatments after mastectomy. The cancer came back in liver in fall of 2004. That is when I received chemo and herceptin. I stopped chemo in March of 2005 but stayed on herceptin every three weeks. I am NED and have been getting the herceptin every three weeks since March of 2005. At one time my doctor discussed me coming off the herceptin because insurance would eventually quit paying. However, recommendations have changed and we plan to use it as long as it works and I have no side effects or problems.

[Lani]

speculating, they would start a clinical trial measuring serum her2 ECD, circulating tumor cells and periodic bone marrows looking for isolated tumor cells in those on herceptin to see if the dormant cells (probably breast cancer stem cells) which lurk in the bone marrow and are probably responsible for recurrences are present at baseline, respond to therapy, and are obliterated before considering stopping herceptin in a stage 4 patient (and if they recur after/while weaning off of herceptin)

Otherwise, they have to wait years to get the stats on lots of patients whose tumors may have very different characteristic and perhaps should not have been lumped together in the first place eg. perhaps different subtypes of her2+er+ breast cancer fuelled by different pathways which ends up painting a muddied picture which is difficult to interpret anyway (especially as so many take flaxseed oil, olive oil, curcumin, and some exercise and some don't, etc--all these things make the statistics less meaningful.

Here's hoping that Individualized treatment becomes the norm in the future.