Why do I read posts saying hercept not working

['lizbeth]

Herceptin does not work for every patient. This is why research continues on the Her2 targeted treatments. Newer drugs include Tykerb, Perjeta and Kadcyla that also target Her2.

Your Herceptin should be working. Stop worrying!

[Lani]

It often seems that posts can be inaccurate (noone is being graded here and there are no pop-quizzes, just people trying to help one another!)...by saying herceptin is not working they may mean that monotherapy herceptin is no longer able to keep them NED, that they need to add something to it.

Cancer is like a puppy dog that wants to get out of the house to chase the squirrels. Herceptin is like locking the front door. They puppy may learn it is possible to get out to play with the squirrels by going out the backdoor instead (eg, using her3, EGFR, IGFR, ER, etc paths to escape the blockade of the her2 pathway). Giving chemo is often like accelerating the aging of the puppy. It gets taller and able to jump on the dresser and jump out the window!!

For Stage IVs, it is usually just a question of what they will add next to herceptin if monotherapy is inssufficient to keep it from progressing(like which window/door to close in addition in the case of the puppy)

Hope this helps!

[Lani]

Upon reading your other posts it seems you are an early breast cancer survivor, not a Stage IV.

You seem to be hounded by the thought that herceptin may not have taken care of your cancer, that it may return. That is possible, but the good news is, that , with herceptin, your chance of recurring is now LESS than if you had not been her2+ to begin with!

Count your blessings.

I personally believe that testing for residual cancer cells in the bone marrow might be the secret to telling who is going to recur (cancer stem cell "hypothesis") and that treating with different combos until those disseminated tumor cells in the marrow dissapear might prove the trick!

Until and IF that becomes the standard of care, the guidelines do not even include any additional scanning....just waiting to see if you get mets in your lungs or liver or brain or a bone hurts or breaks.

Until we determine whether finding these things early makes a difference-- when looked at in ALL TYPES OF BC lumped together they didn't-- in prognosis, the guidelines won't be changed. Something we should all try to motivate scientists to study is whether catching her2+ bc while there is only one or a few small bone, liver, brain etc mets and treating the met with surgery, radiation, embolization, SRS etc prolongs life/leads to some cures.