<p>Hi…I am high risk, with a friend just diagnosed with recurrent ER pos BC after nine years. If your initially ER positive Her2 neg breast cancer returns, several studies indicate u may want to test your new mets for Her2. The second timevaround, they may test pos for Her2, which means you can consider one of the very good anti-Her2 drugs out there. Please see the peer reviewed article: “Her2 and Breast Cancer Stem Cells: More Than Meets the Eye,” or read the below lay article that has links to more peer reviewed articles on this subject to show clinicians? Good luck.
Hi, thanks for link to the review article. I’ve skim-read the article (but not clicked on any links to the original research papers). But I’d like to raise a point, to clarify.
The article mentions “circulating tumour cells”, presumably in the blood. This sounds straightforward (having a blood sample taken is no big deal), but it doesn’t always give useful results if the patient is (or has recently been) on an effective treatment. It’s also been suggested that metastases should be biopsied…hmmm… to be honest I’m not keen on the idea of having my bone and liver mets biopsied!
It is a question that I intend to raise with my oncs soon, especially if my current treatment stops working.
This happened to me. Dx er+ in 2004, Her2 neg in 2007 (I asked for the test, Her 2 testing as a matter of course did not begin until a while after my initial dx.). In 2008 I was dx with recurrence in chest lymph nodes, initially assumed to be similar to primary but luckily my onc put in for the her2 test on the recurrence and it was strongly positive. So thankful that he did. I had herceptin for 17 cycles. I always say to people with a second dx that it may be different from 1st - insist on a check.