Devlin

Hi Devlin
I just want to clarify what you said in your previous post. You said that there were three arms of the study.
1) regular chemo
2) Taxotere & Herceptin
3) Herceptin alone

I know you said you were in the Taxotere & Hercpetin arm of the trial, and that you had complications from the Taxotere.

What I was not clear on is that it seemed that you said that the arm that just did Herceptin did better than the one that combined Taxoter and Herceptin. Is that what you think? I have thought that you increase chance of not relapsing about 55% with both and 25% with just Herceptin. (Those percentages are just approximate and not the actual ones from studies, as I did not look them up though I think they are close.)

Please clarify as I would love to dump the Taxotere if I can find information to support not taking it.
Thanks
Janet

Do not dump Taxotere. Taxotere and Hercptin are synergistic

Results Indicate Improved Long-term Survival with Addition of Herceptin® to Taxotere® in Metastatic Breast Cancer

According to results recently presented at the 2005 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), long-term results indicate that the addition of Herceptin (trastuzumab) to Taxotere (docetaxel) improves long-term survival in patients with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer.

Herceptin is FDA approved as single-agent therapy in the treatment of HER2-positive patients with metastatic breast cancer that has recurred, or in addition to Taxol® (paclitaxel) as initial therapy in the treatment of HER2-positive metastastic breast cancer. The addition of Herceptin to taxane therapy has demonstrated significant activity, including prolonged survival. The M77001 multi-center trial included HER2-positive breast cancer patients with metastatic disease who were randomized to Herceptin (4 mg/kg loading dose followed by 2 mg/kg weekly until disease progression) plus Taxotere (100 mg/m2 q3 weeks x 6 cycles) versus Taxotere alone as initial therapy. Patients randomized to Taxotere were allowed to cross over to the Herceptin arm upon progression.

The results presented at this year’s ASCO meeting included data at a follow-up of 24 months after the last patient entered the M77001 trial. At the 24-month cut-off, significant improvements were sustained in the Herceptin arm, including long-term survival. Patients randomized to the Herceptin arm (n=92) had an overall response rate of 61%, and those randomized to the Taxotere-only arm had a response rate of 34% (p=0.0002). Overall survival was 31.2 months for patients randomized to Herceptin, compared with 22.7 months for patients randomized to Taxotere-only (p=0.0325). The incidence of febrile neutropenia was greater in the Herceptin arm (23% vs 17%), and congestive heart failure occurred in 2% of patients treated with Herceptin, compared to 0% of patients treated with Taxotere only. However, the researchers reported that Herceptin added little toxicity when combined with Taxotere.

The researchers concluded that long-term results demonstrate an improvement in long-term survival in patients treated with Herceptin in addition to Taxotere, compared to Taxotere alone in the treatment of HER2-positive, metastatic breast cancer, with low toxicity.

Reference: Extra J, Cognetti F, Maraninchi D, et al. Long-term survival demonstrated with trastuzumab plus docetaxel: 24-month data from a randomized trial (M77001) in HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer. Proceedings from the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. Orlando FL. 2005; Abstract #555t.

Hi Janet,

I am in the middle of moving. We are living in a tiny apartment while all our stuff is in storage. I don't have access to my filing cabinet, so I have to trust my memory. I wish I had the trial description in front of me.

The study that I was in at the Cross Cancer Institute in Edmonton had three main arms. There was a group that was given the standard chemo, a group that was given Taxotere, and a group that was given Herceptin. The second two arms were sub-divided into groups that received different regimes of treatment with the Taxotere and the Herceptin.

I have attached a Word document that has a few news articles from the CBC going back to 2005. They don't mention anything about the Taxotere arm, only Hereceptin. When I saw my oncologist in Edmonton before I moved, July 5/05, I was told that the greatest success had been with Herceptin. This was during a short visit. We didn't discuss the whole trial and it's results in any detail. That doesn't mean that there hasn't been, or won't be success with Taxotere. It just wasn't mentioned. I was just adding my two cents worth to this forum. I don't think that you should base a change in your treatment on this. You have to have faith in your healthcare team. The Taxotere is miserable, but you have to give it a shot.

I felt rather sorry for myself when I first heard the news about Herceptin. I thought that I had gone through that miserable treatment with Taxotere for nothing. Now, I'm not sure. I am reading whatever I can on the topic, asking questions, and waiting to get into see a new onclolgist in Kamloops.

All the best,

Davlin

Hi Janet,

Correction! Typo, I meant to say that I have attached a Word document that has a few news articles from the CBC going back to 2000!
Davlin

Thanks for the posts. I thought it was the two together--but sure would have loved to have been wrong! LOL I will continue with the two together.
Janet