Herceptin users

Tavni, what a way to celebrate Mother's Day.

Are you sure your mom was diagnosed with DCIS - which stands for Ductal Cancer In Situ - by definition it is not capable of leaving the milk ducts and is not treated with chemo and is stage 0. Is it possible that her diagnosis was IDC, Invasive Ductal Cancer - the most common invasive cancer?  Because I was asked to participate in a clinical trial where Herceptin is given twice to women with HER2+ DCIS, I have literature on it. Currently women with DCIS are not normally even tested for HER2 because it is not know whether there is any clinical benefit to giving Herceptin for HER2+ DCIS. Anyway, there are side effects - 25% or more of the patients experience weakness, fatigue, headache, chills, nausea, cough. There are other unpleasant side effects experienced by even fewer patients. And in only 3-6% of patients are there more serious side effects which do include rapid and irregular heart beat. Less than 3% experience rare but serious side effects which include heart problems. I would check the reference section of BCO for info on the chemo your mom received and for Herceptin http://www.breastcancer.org/treatment/targeted_therapies/herceptin/  .If you use the search function in the upper right of the page for herceptin when you are in the discussion boards section you will find threads which mention it on several of the boards. it is a very commonly used and a well tolerated targeted treatment. It is great that it is available to your mom all the way in GOA and it sounds like her heart is being monitored. I am sorry you are so far away from your mom - but obviously you can still be helpful to her.

Julie E