Woman's Day October 3rd Issue
Hello Guys !
Yesterday my neighbor passed along the October 3rd issue of Woman's Day Magazine. On the cover you will see two jack -o-lanterns. Please go buy yourself one today. The cover shows a "special section" "Breast Cancer Protection Guide".
I will type a few excerpts from the article, but I was amazed that they talked about Her2 specifically. We are not usually the group that gets this kind of news stand press..
The article begins with....
"It is not often that you see breast cancer researchers break into tears, but that's what happened at a major scientific meeting last year. What elicited that response were the results of a clinical trial involving a relatively new cancer drug called herceptin. Combining the drug with chemotherapy was shown to reduce the recurrence of a type of breast cancer known as HER-2 positive by 52 percent. It was one of the most positive changes in the drug effectiveness ever to have been shown to this group of oncologists , the American Society of Clinical Oncology."
At this year's meeting in June, Eric P. Winer MD, of the Dana Farber Cancer Center in Boston, says his own voice trembled a bit as he opened a session with this prediction: Within five to ten years, we will have the tools necessary to eliminate mortality from HER -2 positive breast cancer" . In other words, the hope is that women with this type of cancer will not die from it.
We're at a cusp in the reaserch," says Larry Norton, M.D., medical director of the Evelyn H. Lauder Breast Center at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York City. It's profoundly exciting - and in some ways unsettling. It's like we're running a marathon and we're finally on the last mile. We're finishing as fast as we can and hoping that we don't stumble."
Further into the article was this......
Herceptin This targeted therapy works on the proteins inside the cancer cell to block the cell's growth. It is used for patients whose disease is HER 2 positive. The drug represents on of the most hopeful developements in treatment, says Edith Perez, MD director of the brease cancer program at the Mayo Clinic and the lead reasercher on the study that reduced the oncologists to tears. "One quarter of all cases of invasive breast cancer are HER 2 positive. In the past, it was not very good news because it was a type of cancer that had a high liklehood leading to death," Dr. Perez says. "It may turn out that now, this is one of the best diagnoses you can have"
Tykerb While herceptin is hailed as a tremendous advance, it does not work for all HER 2 positive patients. But at the June 2006Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology, researchers announced that another drug, Tykerb(which is not yet FDA-approved) showed effectiveness in delaying the tumor recurrance in women who were not helped by Herceptin. "it provides another option for HER 2 positive cancer," says Dr. Winer of the Dana Farber Cancer Center. It's a signal of what's to come. And these develepments are coming faster that I'd imagined a year or two ago.
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My wish is that you all feel some hope when you read this...It made me feel just that, HOPEFUL. Thinking of all of you with enormous amounts of LOVE
__________________
Susan V - Pittsburgh PA
DX Age 37 on August 3, 2006
Stage 1 Grade 3
ER/PR + (Highly Positive)
Her 2 +++
1.3 & 1.2 tumors right breast
node negative
lumpectomy 8-15-06
A/C Began 9-5-06 Finished A/C 11/6/06
Port Placement 9-15-06
Negative Test for BRAC1 & BRAC2 10-25-06
Began Tamoxofin November 21, 2006
First Herceptin November 27, 2006 Continues every 3 Weeks
First Radiation Treatment December 11, 2006
35 Rads Completed
Final Herceptin Treatment November 12, 2007
Port Removal November 19, 2007
Living Life to the Fullest !!
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