third shot of herceptin

i am stage 4 with mets in liver and down the spine.. and lots of metastatic lymph nodes.. hv joined a trial where am hvg arimidex and weekly herceptin shots.. am on third one.. nodes are painful at times at others pain in bones leg and fingers.. so i dont know if it is spreading further.. my scan will be done in 6 weeks from now and then thye will compare if herceptin is doing any good for me.. am wondering if i am wasting time an di f i shd hv the chemo along with the herceptin and kill those cancer genes.. need good advice from someone who knows the latest.. arati

Think positive! When I receive herceptin I have aches and pains in different locations and I just figure it's where my tumors are and the Herceptin is attacking them. Visualization is a powerful tool.

Kathie

The Herceptin is working it just is hard to adjust your body to the changes. I also am during this drug and am Stage 4 with liver mets, so far it is doing it's job. Hang in there. Email me if you need to chat.

go well,
Marsha B
mpbrekke@vaderandlandgraf.com

I have just completed my last round of taxotere/herceptin for local recurrance and liver mets, with the taxotere given every 3 weeks for 8 rounds, and herceptin weekly. After two more weekly herceptins I will start the triple dose every 3 weeks. I also noticed pain at the tumor sites,and in lymph nodes under my arms, especially in the beginning of treatment. I read somewhere (am thinking it was the herceptin site?) that it can cause this. After 3 rounds of the combo my liver mets shrunk from 7.5 cm to 3cm....last scans a few weeks ago showed even more substantial shrinkage. The tumor in my breast was "gone" after the 3 rounds also. So....my thinking is also that what you are feeling is the med working to kill all those bad cells! I am scheduled for more scans, sonogram, echocardiogram, etc. in two weeks and hope to hear there is absolutely NOTHING left in my liver! My very best to you, I hope this works out to be the miracle drug for you as well! Hugs!
Linda

When my wife received herceptin for the first time she had three substantial tumors in her liver. After several weeks of treatment she began to have pain in her liver area. We thought the tumors were growing. After 8 weeks we had scans and discovered that the tumors had practically disappeared. Our Docs hurried to ablate the remaining tumors and the herceptin finished off the large tumor in her lung. She has been NED since August, 2003.

Did your wife just use Herceptin, or with other chemo drug? How long she had herceptin before reached NED?

Arati,

One of the "side effects" of Herceptin is pain at the site of the tumor. It's a good thing - it means it is working. I had liver mets and am taking weekly taxol/carboplatin/herceptin treatments. They were all but gone after 11 weeks. I have continued the combo and will scan again at the end of March to see if everything looks good, then probably go on weekly maintenance herceptin. Personally, I wanted the chemo along with herceptin to knock back the mets as quickly as possible and I am glad we did it this way. Good luck.

Kitty