Hey Chris -
I am back from abroad and hope this my reply will get to you in time.
I had this test in February and had a good result of around 9, as I recall without looking it up.
When I first asked my med onc to order this test after San Antonio conference of 2004 he was not interested. This year he was - and he attends all these conferences so is "up" on new tests.
If I suspect any cancer activity I am sure he will order the test again.
Hope the word is getting out on this one and that the research will delve a little deeper into the question of possible use for early stagers.
Hi Christine,
My oncologist won't order it for me and I printed out the information from Joe for him. I don't think anyone at the Dana Farber is using it. Do you know why? Tumor markers are reliable for me and my onlcolgoist uses them. I hope that more information will be available at the meeting. He will be there but I understand it is a huge conference.
Thanks,
Barbara H.
Like many others, my onc sees no value in it. I'm on continuous chemo (currently Xeloda) plus Herceptin and Zometa. He says, and I must agree, what is the real value of this test at this point. I'm already on Herceptin and to date there's no substitution, say if the test were high.
Lisa -
When we met with the team that has created and tested this test last Dec. in San Antonio, there were a few answers. But the concensus was that the best use of this test was to monitor stage IV patients who are beginning a new treatment to see if the number goes up or down at two weeks into that cycle, and continue the blood test to monitor success or failure of that or a new treatment. Dr. Julie Gralow mentioned starting a trial using the blood test in just this way.
The other recommended use of the test was as a way to monitor stage IV patients who are NED or close to NED. A rise in HER2 cells can indicate increasing tumor activity well in advance of the other tumor markers or detection of tumors by various scan methods.
In your case, it would be a good idea to see what Dr. Carney thinks about using this test. I would still think it could be useful as a way to monitor success of your treatment.
Could you find out if a low reading the test could potentially help to discover that, while Herceptin is making HER-2 tumours regress, other HER-2 negative lesions are progressing (or not regressing) by comparing with other non selective existing markers?
If so, this would allow the onc to add other treatments to Herceptin at an oppotune time.
I have just gotten off the phone from my contact at Dako Canada and he tells me that all of the documentation for the Canadian government has been given to Bayer Oncogene and they are the ones who are delaying this test being available in Canada. They want more publicity or whatever......it's really a catch 22 to me as my onc has written up the prescription for it but we can't get it so he won't be after it for others..... We also need a lab but the Dako guy said that if the lab here is set up Elissa (spelling? I think he means other of their tests..?) they should be able to do the test. So.....what response did you get from them and can you put any pressure on them for the Canadians on the site?
Had the test
Hybrid Mode
