Herceptin

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Herceptin

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Herceptin Hi

This is for anyone not funded with Herceptin who needs to be.

I’ve had an email from the “Shropshire six”. which reads…

I have been contacted by ITN national news, they are following the Anne Marie Rodgers case next week and want to highlight that is is not just Anne Marie it is happening across the country. If you are still not receiving Herceptin and are willing to speak to ITN
let me know and I will forward your details.
We are still moving forward in Shropshire, even more determined.

Julia Black

For anyone who is interested, Julia can be contacted via www.shropshiresix.com

Sandra

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— Hi all , Me and Nicky are still not sure of when herceptin would be of benefit or not , surely if your her2 + herceptin must be of benefit , we just dont know if we have not been offered it because of cost , why wait for a secondary , still cofused after all this time

Tim

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Hi Tim Sorry you’re still unsure about this. If I remember rightly, despite being in her 40s, Nicky has been treated with radiotherapy alone after her op and not chemotherapy plus rads. This implies that her cancer was early and small and not very aggressive, otherwise she would also have been offered chemotherapy. I also seem to remember that she will be having her ovaries removed so that she can take Arimidex, which is a very effective treatment in itself.

Herceptin has only been proved to be useful when given either with or after chemotherapy, so no chemotherapy automatically means no Herceptin.

Hope this helps
Kathy xxx

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— Adding to what Kathy has said - Herceptin has risks of its own - heart failure - so (as with anything in this) it is a risk/benfit balance (medicine is not an exact science unfortunately). So for a smaller, less aggressive cancer, no node spread et. etc. with good prognosis (adjuvantonline) the real risk of heart failure (which even the Dr who discovered it notes may not always be reversible), the use of Herceptin may not be justifiable.

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— yet another point worh noting. I know herceptin carries the heart failure risk - supposedly only in a small percentage of patients - I have struggled with a yo-yo LVEF but I have been told by my onc that several of chemos I have been on also carried this risk -but you never hear anything about that.

Dawnhc