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Re: percentage of those who respond to Herceptin
Chrisy is right. You are not looking at the statistics right.
Let's say at Stage 2 if given chemo (with surgery +/- rads) you have a 30% recurrence rate but if you're given Herceptin too, your 2 yr recurrence rate would become only 15% (as Herceptin halfs that) and then as time goes on, the rate would flatten out to about 20%. The difference is that you are assuming that all Her2s or all with bc recur and that does not happen, even if you don't get Herceptin. Herceptin just lowers the recurrence rate of those who would have recurred (and you don't know who you are until you do recur...). A Stage 1 woman has less odds of recurring and so on so treatments that lessen recurrence rates are most effective on those that are at higher Stages but those treatments do help all. A Stage 1 woman might only have a 10%-12% chance of recurring and taking Herceptin would lower that to 6% or so.
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Kind regards
Becky
Found lump via BSE
Diagnosed 8/04 at age 45
1.9cm tumor, ER+PR-, Her2 3+(rt side)
2 micromets to sentinel node
Stage 2A
left 3mm DCIS - low grade ER+PR+Her2 neg
lumpectomies 9/7/04
4DD AC followed by 4 DD taxol
Used Leukine instead of Neulasta
35 rads on right side only
4/05 started Tamoxifen
Started Herceptin 4 months after last Taxol due to
trial results and 2005 ASCO meeting & recommendations
Oophorectomy 8/05
Started Arimidex 9/05
Finished Herceptin (16 months) 9/06
Arimidex Only
Prolia every 6 months for osteopenia
NED 18 years!
Said Christopher Robin to Pooh: "You must remember this: You're braver than you believe and stronger than you seem and smarter than you think"
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