update on my treatment

[Pam P]

My ca2729 had been climbing the last few months. This week it jumped to 600. I'd been on taxol/avastin & zometa since last May. Now I'm going to start gemzar & go back on herceptin. My onc. really debated whether to put me on taxol, carboplatin & herceptin. But decided that the taxol/carbo would really be hard for me to tolerate & that gemzar will be more tolerable. And the taxol/carbo can be saved for later. He said theres good data that herceptin works well with tax/carbo. But there's no specific data saying that herceptin is more effective with grmzar, abraxane, or ixempra (3 drugs I haven't had). He says that these combos are used in hopes they might be better than with the chemo alone, but it's not really known if they do. And that with these chemos & the herceptin deciding which to use is much like picking one out of a hat. I find that discouraging - I'd like a little more hope and assurance than that.