Lauren - I think it's perfectly healthy to question why....as long as we're not obsessed with it. By understanding the WHY (whether scientist or lay person) we better understand the HOW of how to treat it. Her2 and herceptin is a perfect point. By understanding how her2 genes signal growth, we, as patients, can make educated decisions about taking herceptin and weighing the potential benefits vs. the risks.
Alaskangel - that being said, I don't know the WHY here. I was pregnant, yet ER-. Go figure - seems REALLY conterintuitive to me. Anyway, when you are young (let's say 30s) you only have about a 30% chance of being hormone positive. This increases until you're older (say in 70s) when it's more like 80%. Inverse relationship with age. I think it's interesting to wonder why as well. I have a great rad onc who loves to talk about all my questions - I'll ask the next time I see him.
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