Hormone Therapy

I was wondering if my mom should go on hormone therapy. Our oncologist is usually against it and keeps pushing chemo only. She is hormone +, but the onc said you won't know which is working??? We saw another onc where I work and she recommended at the time for her to go on hormone therapy because she was stable. Do you have to be stable before trying it or do you all think she should try both. Right now I don't think she is stable, current treatment is Abraxane, she has had 2 treatments and will go back on once she has recovered from surgery.
Thanks in advance
Kristin

I am especially curious as to the concesus <spell?>, since I, for one, am hormone +, although quite weakly, currently on hormone therapy & Herceptin. I am considered as stable & stage 4.

This is my 3rd hormonal into my 8th month so far, ever since my 1st recurrence last year. The 1st two hormonals stopped working, when I came out of 'stable' disease (my timeframe on each hormonal: 6 months). I have never been in remission yet -- that is my goal!

My oncologist tells me that: should I need chemo ever again, she would take me off the homonal immediately, but allow me to maintain on Herceptin. My clinic does not believe in the synergy of chemo & hormonals; they believe that hormonals rather work against chemo.

And you know that Herceptin is not chemo....

PS: I forgot to mention that I HAVE heard of several ladies being on chemo & hormonals simultaneously, and I believe that they are stage 4, too. If memory serves me right, I have heard of maybe 1 or 2 ladies (stage 4 also) that are taking chemo without hormonals. So, this is where my only confusion lies on right now....

My Onc put me on Tamoxefin as soon as I started chemo. There is some controversy about the effectivness of Tamox. and HER2 cancers but because I was pre-menopausal that was the only choice I had other than ovary removal which he didn't want to do either. I have been on Tamox. for about 3 years but will switch to an aromatase inhibitor as soon as I am post-menopausal. Hope this helps. Linda in Calif.

When I had my second go-around with cancer, a stage IV met to my spine 15 years ago, I was put on tamoxifen for 5 years, nothing else. Since finding the her2 lung mets a year ago I was put immediately on femara, then navelbine and herceptin, all at the same time, for 6 months. Now a year from the finding of the lung mets I am still on femara and on herceptin with zometa, no other chemo. My onc, who has been with me from the first, definitely believes in the hormonals. Of course I have been postmenopausal all along. My understanding is that I will be on herceptin indefinitely and perhaps the femara, too. I will ask him tomorrow. I will also report on my recent PET scan when I get the info tomorrow. Hope this info is of any value...Tricia