Her2 Vaccine/Herceptin, UW Seattle

Hi Lolly

I am very pleased to read about you being one of the responders, I wonder if i can ask you a couple of things:

. Have had breast caner (1 tumour and 1 node this time last year removed. Had six rounds of chemo plus 20 rads. Last Jan found three more nodes in same armpit (all HER2 neu +++) and now started this weekly treatment of herceptin plus Taxotere every fourth week. Just now i had a call from my onc who tells me he might be seeing another node on my latest scan. He wants to compare it to my last scan taken before surgery three months ago.

Im just wondering, if there is another node, does this mean it is not responding to the HErceptin or what? I am worried, thinking that nothing is going to work on me... also re this vaccine you are on, would it be of any help to me do you think? Its not available here, I live in Malta (Europe) although maybe i could be included in a trial. would have to check

pls help

thanks

gillian

[uma]

gillian,
Good you will be on Herceptin. Right choice. I am sure it will definitely remove all traces of HER2/Neu, because it did for my wife. I have a simple question for you: When your onc saw another node on your latest scan, what scan is it ?. Is it an MRI ?. Did he test with tumour marker (CA27-29) ?. Did he do needle biopsy, because our onc says there is no other method to make absoutely sure. The scans and test also give false alarms
Rama