Treatment update

Nancy L · 05-06-2009, 05:17 PM

Another woman with neck lymph node mets. I am so sorry you haven't something that works for you. I am curious if they tested your biopsy for ER/PR/HER2. I recently had a biopsy for neck mets and Dr. Dennis Slamon (my oncologist at UCLA) wanted the tissue retested for tumor characteristics inorder to prescribe a protocol. Breast cancer tumors can change characterists when they metastasize. I am currently on Herceptin and Tykerb--see below.

Age 57 at diagnosis---Nothing has happened per the book for me.

11/03 Annual mammo-Stanford/normal. Had mammos every year since age 40 with no indication of cancer.
9/04 Left Nipple Inverted--DX/High Grade BC-Stage IIIC 7x5x3cm tumor with 11 of 11 tested lymph nodes positive for metastatic carcinoma with extranodal spread. ER/PR - Her2neu positive by FISH (HER217Z1 ratio of 4.03). Ki-67 staining was 70%

10/04-4/05 Dose Dense---4 AC; 4 Taxotere/Herceptin; 35 rounds of radiation.

5/05-2/09 Herceptin every 3 weeks; My hair never grew back---told this is rare and caused by Taxol drugs. After much mourning, selected hair replacement system (VirtualReality.com)—expensive but I have better hair than before cancer.

7/08 Lost voice—DX paralyzed rt vocal cord. -. It took 7 mo for modern medicine to find the root cause. None of my doctors suspected malignancy because my BC was on the left side/paralyzed vocal cord was on the right side, and my tumor markers never changed. (Told rare place for breast cancer to reoccur and my tumor doesn’t produce the proteins measured by tumor markers---these markers don’t work for everyone---new news to me; all these years I have had a false sense of security).

2/09 Enlarged Neck lymph node finally detected on CT/PET. Surgery to remove tissue done to confirm tumor characteristics. Breast cancer metastatis was finally diagnosed at UCLA. Neck tumor was ER/PR -; Her2neu highly positive by Fish (her217Z1 ratio of 20.2).

3/10 Continuing Herceptin. Prescribed 4 Tykerb daily. After 6 days, massive hives all over body. Tykerb reduced to 3 tablets daily. So far so good. Will get cat/pet soon since tumor markers don’t work for me.

Believe51 · 05-06-2009, 09:25 PM

( Picture Jacquie knocking on her head LOL)

Atlast my daily chuckle, thank you my Goofy friend! One down! The first one always meant alot for us to get past. Now we continue to wait and see, a job we can never get used to and a term that makes me ill. As each treatment passes we are one step closer to finding out if that is our recipe.

My prayers for you is that it is. Go get 'em Girl.>>Believe51

Sheila · 05-07-2009, 04:27 AM

WOS
Hoping that this new treatment is the "magic bullet" and that it continues to be relatively easy to take.....love your Goofy avatar!!!!

WomanofSteel · 05-07-2009, 06:31 AM

Thank you one and all. My avatar is a balloon Goofy that a gentleman made for me at a kids party. I know I am just a big kid at heart LOL!

In answer to your question Nancy, I am not sure if they retested my neck biopsy for her2 or er status. Right now it is not the nodes that I am so concerned with, although I will inquire about this, I am more concerned with my liver. It seems to be the bane of my existence.

Believe51 · 05-18-2009, 11:29 PM

Hey Girl, how are things going? I am keeping you in my thoughts and prayers. I had to miss the DFCI Conference too but will post some of the highlights soon. Talk very soon to you.>>Believe51

WomanofSteel · 05-19-2009, 05:13 AM

Well, I had my 3rd treatment yesterday and except for occasional fever and chills, this treatment seems tolerable. I was told my counts would drop a lot and that I may not get the 3rd treatment, but they were fine. So next week is just herceptin and and I have a week off from gemzar. I am going for a bronchoscopy on Thurs. to see what's up with my cough. I can't wait till that is over with. Wish me luck!