Kadcyla for her2+ mets

sciencegal

http://www.roche.com/media/media_releases/med-cor-2013-02-22.htm



My oncologist shared this news release with me because she wanted me to know that "we have options" if or when I relapse. It is about Kadcyla for Her2+ metastatic disease. This is Roche's new FDA-approved drug that is herceptin directly linked to a taxane. The herceptin part finds the mets and then directly kills the cells with the taxane.



I had a 9 CM tumor and 75% positive nodes, did neoadjuvant therapy- TCH, then had the mastectomy. After the chemo I had 24/24 clean lymph nodes and only one nest of dead cells in the removed breast tissue. So that was considered a "complete response".



But due to the largeness of my initial tumor (it was hiding in dense breast tissue- missed by mammograms until I started having a lot of pain) and the positive nodes at the beginning, my chances of relapse are higher than for most. I start radiation next week to further reduce my chances of relapse.



But the fact that this drug exists, and that others are coming in the pipeline, really helps my outlook so I figured I would share. Everyone on these boards has helped me so much, thank you to all!!!