My sister was diagnosed with DCIS in 2001 and had a mastectomy with no further treatment. Six and a half years later (sept 2007) she was diagnosed with HER2 + invasive breast cancer - 25 out of 26 nodes infected! (Not hormone receptive). She has just finished a course of 8 chemos - 4 x FEC which were pretty grotty (although not as bad as expected) and 4 x Taxotere, which have been okay (insomnia, loss of taste, nerve endings in her fingers shot etc - but not too bad). She is now expecting Radiotherapy at the end of April 3 times a week for 4 weeks which will be followed by a year of Herceptin and 5 years of Tamoxifin. She will have a CT scan between her chemo and radiotherapy - for which she has had to fight for.
Is there anyone out there with similar treatment with HER2+?
My sister is 46 and has always been incredibly fit and well. She is following the Jane Plant regime to a T and looks fabulous considering she has just finished 8 sessions of chemo. I realize that there are many on these forums who don’t rate Jane - which is fine - I think it is an individual thing and I don’t want to raise this as an issue.
Just wanted to ask about treatments people with HER2+ have had and their ongoing check-ups?
I had a mastectomy a year ago as I had two invasive ductal tumours, one ER and PR positive, the other HER2 positive. The HER2 positive had spread to the axillary area, but in my case only one node of 17 was affected. Unusually, in my case, the tumours in my breast did not show up on mammogram or ultrasound, and the only sign I had anything wrong was my discovery of a small lump in my armpit, a biopsy of which showed bc cells. I then had an MRI scan of the breast, which pinpointed the tumours.
Prior to surgery I had bone, and CT scans, and a chest x-ray, all of which were clear. After surgery I had 4xFEC and 4xTaxotere, 15 rads and am now on Arimidex (I am post menopausal) and have just had my second dose of Herceptin with 15 still to go. I also had an ECHOcardiogram prior to starting Herceptin, as Herceptin can have an affect on heart function, and I will be having one every three months during my treatment. I have also had a DEXA scan which measures bone density, as Arimidex can cause thinning of the bones.
So it would seem that the treatment I am receiving is very similar to your sisters.
Hope this helps, and please pass on my best wishes to her!
Really sorry to hear that your sister is having to go through this again. My breast cancer is HER2+ and I had 3 FEC and 3 Taxotere followed by a mastectomy followed by 3 weeks or rads. I had 1 lymph node affected. The Herceptin was started when I started Taxotere and is for a year. I had a CT scan, bone scan and blood tests before starting chemo and I have blood tests every 3 weeks when I have Herceptin. I don’t think everybody has blood tests during Herceptin but my oncologist carries them out.
If you would like to know anything specific about my treatment, please do ask.
hi nixon
im sure u r a great source of support for yr sister.my bc is er+ pr- her2+. i had 4 taxols and 3 ec.then had mastectomy and recon.i had 18 lymph nodes removed and 4 infected and one with tumour. i am now starting 5 weeks of rads and then one yr of herceptin. like ruby i also had ct scan,bone scan and blood tests before starting chemo to check for spread. i had another ct scan before op as the onc where concerned because of size of tumour and how quick it was growing. but so far so good.
good luck to yr sister and she is very lucky to have u there with her.
Hi girls - thank you so much for replying to my post - I feel this website is fantastic for getting as much information as possible about this awful disease. My sister certainly feels that she needs to know what options there are out there for her so that she is armed when speaking to her onc. Judging by your replies, I think her treatment is pretty standard.
When I have another question - I will be back on line! - Thanks again and good luck with all your treatments.