Her2+ and surgery only as treatment

You are stage 3,  node positive, why would you refuse appropriate treatment?  Your best chance for a cure is the first round of treatment.  If you wait to see if it recurs, your chances of survival will diminish markedly.  If you don't like or trust your team of doctors, find some other ones!  You don't say how old you are, but unless you have some other condition that you expect to greatly reduce your life span, re-consider.   Also, I see you joined in Dec. 2008, how much time have you wasted? 

In a recent retrospective study by MD Anderson reported Dec 2008 at San Antonio, women who had HER2+ cancer with negative nodes and tumors less than 1 cm had a 5 year recurrence of 23% and distant recurrence (mets) about 15%. That's for women who were stage Ia or Ib.

I think Fern maybe asking just to know or for someone else  

I also chose to throw everything I can at it.

This is an old thread, but I'd like to reactivate it.  I just had a lumpectomy with a level one axillary node dissection, and I am choosing to not have chemo or radiation.  There will be a tumor board meeting next week to give me an answer about treating with only tamoxifen and Herceptin, which I may agree to do, but only if the menopause symptoms are not too bad (I've been there and done that without HRT, and it was a disaster it was so awful).  My MO does not treat with Herceptin except with the other chemotherapeutic regimen, and had ordered TCHP, but my SO disagrees and wants me to do hormone reduction plus Herceptin.  I am over 70, and have no one to help take care of me, so chemo is out of the question, and I live too far from my cancer center for rads.  If I get an extra 5 years, that will make me happy.  I don't want anymore than that, so I'm willing to take the chance.  Has anyone else here followed this course of action?   

Unwilling: There are clinical trials now that are assessing which HER2 patients may be able to be treated with monoclonal antibodies (like Herceptin and Perjeta) only (+ hormone drugs for ER/PR+ patients). This is an exciting prospect ... but not for the faint of heart. I hope you have talked with your docs to explore options and that your preferences were met with the respect that they deserve. If you are pursuing chemo, I hope it may be reassuring to you to hear that I did chemo on my own. I did TCH. I have no spouse and no family in the area. I drove myself to and from appointments/infusions. I worked full time and only missed two days of work (those were days when my white blood cell count got too low form me to go safely. I only felt really crummy one of those days.) I had no nausea. I followed my doctors' instructions to the letter regarding what meds to take and when. I kept well hydrated. And I was lucky that my employer was flexible about my taking time to go to appointments. But it was NOT disabling. I wouldn't do it for fun but it was not that bad. I did experience a lot of fatigue and had to cut myself some slack on being a couch potato. And everything tasted bad. That stunk. I realize that everyone's experience is different and Adriamycin tends to be more unpleasant. Posts from other successful "singletons" on chemo gave me courage so I hope that this post may help others. Take one day at a time and be strong. Know that you can do it!