to all those who didn't get to finish their course of herceptin

[Lani]

It was suggested to Dr. Slamon (with Dr. Piccart, head of the HERA study present) that they utilize the data from those who had to drop out of the North American and HERA studies, as well as those from other studies in the future, that they utilize the medical records of how those patients did as a surrogate for performing a study to see whether a shorter course of herceptin is just as good as one year.

Medical realities are that, in the US at least, noone could get approval for a trial of less than one year's course of herceptin as it is the standard of care and clinical trials can only offer (morally and legally) to ADD something to the standard of care, not provide less than that (I think that is why APBI trials must provide the same number of Guys, just given in a different number of days)

A review of data already gathered and specimens already donated to these trials should speed up getting this important information to the public and may also allay the fears of those unable to make it through the entire year.

He and Dr. Piccart seemed to think that there were sufficient numbers of such patients that this would be a doable and USEFUL project. He implied it would get underway soon!