HER2/80%

Annie098-

 I will tell you what I know.  HER2 is a receptor that they can type. If she is HER2 + it means that her cancer cells can be identified as having that receptor and it is over active.  It is good as herceptin is a drug that is built to specifically attack only HER2 + cancer cells.  Being HER2 + does not mean you have metastatic cancer.  

Based upon your description, your mom has a breast cancer that is HER2 + and has spread to at least one lymph node.  This is quite common.  The cancer probably was already in her lymph node at the time of surgery, but they got confirmation of that after they got the results back from the surgery.  You didn't say if she had a mastectomy or not.  If she had only a lumpectomy, they added radiation to treat the cancer that was found in the lymph nodes.  If she had a mastectomy, the radiation will treat where the scar is.  I have been told that the scar is the most likely place for the cancer to recur if it does after a mastectomy.  The chemo your mom is most likely receiving is a drug called herceptin. It is usually given to people once every 3 weeks for about one year. This drug along with all the therapy she has received will greatly improve her chances of living cancer free after this whole process.  

 Now, I am not a doctor and am basing all of the above on your brief description.

For your reference, I am HER2 + and had at least one lymph node that tested positive for cancer. I had bone scans,  a CT scan and MRIs that showed my cancer was limited to my breast and lymph nodes.  I don't know if your mom had these or not.  Because my tumor was very large and I had several smaller ones in my breast I started out with chemotherapy. This will be my 17 week in a 20 week cycle and I will continue with the Herceptin once every 3 weeks until March of next year. I began my chemotherapy in January of this year.  I am having my mastectomies in June and will follow that will about 6 weeks of radiation treatment (every day 5x/week for 32 treatments I think).  After I heal from that I will have reconstruction.  

I hope this helps. I will answer any questions you have that I am able.  I am sorry that your family is going through this. I can tell this is hard on you.  

No, Her2+ does not equal metastatic. 

When I was first diagnosed, I was told after my mastectomy that without any other treatment, my chance of recurrence was 50%.  Chemotherapy and one year of herceptin reduced that down to 17% risk for the first year after chemo while I was still on herceptin.  Her2+ cancers have the highest risk of recurrence within the first 2-3 years after diagnosis because they are aggressive. 

I am now 4 years out from the end of chemo, (3 from end of herceptin) and my risk has now dropped down to the single digits and approaching 1% for the rest of my life.

My cancer had not spread to my lymph nodes. Your mother's had and that therefore increased her risk of occurrence.  It would be nice if you knew if that 80% risk was the risk she was told after surgery if she didn't do any other treatment.  If so, the chemo, the rads, and eventually the herceptin, will drop that risk right down.

The reason all the treatment is so effective is because chemo (don't know about rads as I didn't have any) is most effective on the cancer cells that are dividing and vulnerable to the chemo.  Because HER2+ cancer is aggressive  (rapidly dividing and growing cells), any cancer cells left after surgery will be killed off by the chemo.  After that, the herceptin works by blocking the HER enzyme sequence in the cancer cell that trigger the division process.  It is also thought that the herceptin somehow tags these cells that the body's white cells come back and gobble the cell up.

To tell you  anymore, we would need to know your mother's type of breast cancer (IDC, ILC, IBC), stage, grade, and hormone status.

Maybe you could tell her not knowing what is going on is worse than knowing?  I do know I had a tendancy to tell my daughter what was going on, but it was sometimes a little after the fact and I put the best spin on it (it didn't work; she has a friend who is an oncology nurse who would cut through any BS I tried).