reaccurance after chemo

I was told 40% reduced to 15% with chemo.

Hi Marina thank you for your response it's very much appreciated. I will relay your message to her.

I'm curious as why your treatment plan is very different from my sister as she has a similar diagnosis. She is on  cyclophosphamideplus /epirubisin /fluorouracil x3 every 3 wks followed by  taxotere x3 every three weeks.then 33 rads. Why are you having so many cycles of Taxol?

Also, you are enrolled in a Herceptin trial??? Isn't Herceptin for positives only?

Hi Laura, Your sister and I do have such a similar diagnosis! how is she doing?  I always get nervous when I hear about different treatment plans for the same diagnosis, makes one realize this is not an exact science and that's really scary. For our first "phase"  it looks like your sister and I had two similar drugs and it seems like she got one additional drug -- I got cyclophoshame as Cytoxan, I think epirubisin and adriamycin (doxorubisin) may have a somewhat similar mechanism since both are anthracyclin antibiotics (I think) -- I wasn't offered flourouracil - and I'm kinda wishing I did, I feel heck the more they throw at me the more likely something is to work!.   Re the Taxol, I know that Taxol is often administered x6 every two weeks and that's considered an equivalent dose to Taxol x12 every week  -- maybe x3 every three weeks is equivalent - just they give you a much larger dose?

I'm also getting 33 rads.

Re. Herceptin, it's FDA approved for HER2 positives, but apparently when they did the clinical trial for the HER2 positives they found some HER2 neutral/negatives had been in their sample due to a lab error (about 25% of the women in the study - seems there was some difficulty reading HER-2 immunohistology!!), anyway the results suggested that about 50% of these HER2 neutral/negative women responded to herceptin, but of course their sample size was too small to be interpreted as significant, so now they are doing a study just on HER2 neutral/negatives. It is fairly controversial and some of the 2nd opinion oncs I talked to were very opposed to it due to the cardiac toxicity associated with Herceptin  -- the study is NASABP B47, it is not blind so you know what group you've been randomly assigned to, and I know that I'm in the treatment arm

Diagnosis: 10/31/2011, IDC, 2cm, Stage IIa, Grade 3, 0/1 nodes, ER-/PR-, HER2-

Hi Marietta thanks for the info...we are from Toronto Canada and yes that is likely the case as to why she is receiving a different combo.

 LRM from Georgia -- hi and thanks for the post, it eased my mind a lot! You seem to be doing well and you are 3 years out! I asked around a lot when I got my treatment plan, and yes the DD AC and Taxol did seem like a very common approach in the USA. I didn't' realize different countries use different protocols.  

Laura, hi I think it's awesome that you're such a caring sister and doing the research and reaching out for her - everyone needs a sister like you! This site has lots of information and support. I feel a lot like your sister, I mostly have good days where I'm optimistic and energetic, then I have days when I get really really afraid of mets! Usually those down days coincide with my "steriod crash"

Taxotere is the best thing available just now.  I did six rounds of taxotere and cytoxin.  Then 7 weels of radiation.

It is harsh.  I worried the first or second time that I couldn't manage it.  Then I knew that after a minute you can breathe again and you will stop sweating from all pores.  Taxotere is beastly for about a minute every time.    

I have one more taxol left. Did 4 AC over two months. Then 12 weekly ttaxol .



I was terrified when I started. But when holidays where over I found my inner strength. And started walking. I think this has really helped me. It clears my head. I drink at least 90 oz. of wwater daily.