Stage I, but Her2 pos, ER-/PR- AM I DOOMED???

Welcome Mary Jo. Congratulations on finding a small tumor and having no positive nodes. The markers you mentioned help your doctors select the best treatment for your cancer.

Know that every case is different and NO ONE can tell YOU what will happen. At this stage you are probably madly looking at survival tables and worrying about things that may never happen.

You will likely read that the Drug Herceptin has greatly improved the recurrence and survival rates at the 2 year mark in recent studies and this trend is expected to continue.

I had very similar treatment to yours and am still NED at the 2 year mark. There are other regimes for your cancer, it might be worth while exploring the other options with you oncologist. I think many people are receiving their Herceptin with the Taxotere...some are getting TCH(taxol,carboplatin and Herceptin).

Becoming more positive will hopefully start soon for you. I think I felt better once my chemo started, thinking I was blasting away any stray cells. I still worry but much less so and for short periods.

Stages 1-3 all have people that are cured, why not you?

Fists up!

I am ER- PR- Her2 pos, and have been told that I'm Stage IV, and I don't feel doomed.
Your tx does seem strong, but strong is good if you can hack it.
I had 4x A/C at 3 week intervals, then 33 rads and now 1 year of Herceptin.
I have had bad days, both mentally and physically, but I have reached a point to where I am looking forward to and planning for my future.
I hopes this helps you.

Hey, there is no need to feel shame when whining. This disease is horrible and it doesn't play fair.

Just ban the word "doomed" from your vocabulary.

I am stage 4 (at age 29). I am now NED for almost a year.

I whine everyday. Don't like that it was EVER in my body.

However, I keep reminding myself I am one of the lucky ones. I responded to treatment.

A 5cm. tumor I found under my arm was gone with 3 weeks of treatment.

My onc. said this doesn't happen. He was shocked and he has been doing this a long time.

I was not planning on being here this summer, but I am .

If you saw me you would not say she has cancer, maybe just wow, she likes her hair really short. Is that a way to save money on shampoo?

Keep your head up,

Jan

That's what we're here for Bluewillow...to help one another, to share our experiences with one another.
That's part of this cancer journey...I believe we are given a chance to look at the world through a different view finder ~ to see the things we were missing out on and reclaim the time that we have on this earth (someone on the board, Biondi I believe) calls this "God time" which I think is brilliant. I'm the same age as you, diagnosed when I was 48, thought cancer would never happen to me (don't we all?). I've come such a very long way since the day I heard I had a mammogram that showed suspicious calcifications, and I've learned so much.
You will too.
And herceptin? The best news for those of us with her2. It also works wonders at late stage, metastatic cancer.
If you have no nodes involved (I had 1), and your scans are clear and the cancer hasn't travelled, that puts you in a better position. It might come back, it might not. You might develop heart trouble, you might not. You might fall down the stairs, you might not. All part of life. I just choose not to dwell on the "what if" and as my screen name says, I live for each day. It's the only one that counts.
I love hearing you say that you are determined not to let this rule you now. Remember, you will have good days and bad days and the bad days can be really bad. They'll take you to the bottom of the well. But the good days? We hope they will last forever and we learn to make the most of those.
You go girl!!!!

Mary Jo-

We have similar dx......do not let it get you down just do ALL you can to fight and stay positive.  I was DX at 39, had bi-lat Mas, 4 a/c, 4 taxotere/herceptin, then continued Herceptin for a year and finished in late June.  midst herceptin I had 35 rads.  I, too was originally stage 1, dcis then found IDC 2mm in breast no lump then we found it was also in 3 lymph nodes 3mm, 4mm, 7mm.....er-/pr-  her2+3.8...I too have worried about the aggressiveness, but I have done absolutely all I can do and plan to sign up for clinical trials at the university hospital in a few months very interested in what tykerb is showing with herceptin.  I had a second opinion at Sloan Kettering and the Oncologists and my oncologists agreed except Sloan thought Taxol instead of taxotere....they are sister drugs and from my understanding Taxol usually is physically tougher???!!  I went with taxotere.  I just had my first of 3 surgeries for reconstruction DIEP....I am moving forward.  Stay positve get through your treatment, then I think it is important to exercise, eat right and keep going there are many many tough DX out there.......fists up gal you can do this!!!!  Hugs JoAnna

For what it's worth Mary Jo, my surgeon at UCSF --the director of the breast cancer program -- told me to be it was better (!!) to to be Her2+ than not because Herceptin is doing such a good job of extending life expectancies in early stage tumors like ours.  I, too, was stage I.    Imagine what the research will produce in the next couple of years at the rate things are going.  We'll be around long enough to be a pain the butt for our great-grandkids! Ha!

Trish

I'm sorry your doctor is not more supportive.  My diagnosis was stage 1, node negative,  her2+.  My surgeon and oncologist have always been encouraging.  My surgeon told me I had a better chance of getting killed by a bus - LOL and my oncologist told me I have a great prognosis especially with Herceptin.  I had the same treatment you will be having - a/c, tax/radiaition/herceptin and was diagnosed Jan,2005.  Keep your spirits up!

Hi Mary Jo,

I had a similar dx, of HER2+ and ER-/PR- almost a year ago.  Due to the small tumor size, 3mm, I was advised not to do chemo (by 3 oncologists).  So here I was with this very "aggressive" form of cancer, and no treatment!  I was a little panicked, felt like a time bomb waiting to go off!  But my onc said, even with the HER2+ issue, the tumor size is most predictive- the smaller the better.  That made me feel better.  It's about one year since dx, and I feel wonderful.  I completely revamped how I eat- lots of cancer-fighting foods now, and I try to get more excercise in.  When you feel down, always remember what Janie said- that HER2neu is where all the advancements have been made!  At the her2support site, someone did a poll, and NOONE that had been on herceptin had had a recurrence so far.  It's not scientific, but isn't that exciting!  Some of those women were diagnosed in later stages. I've decided to look at HER2+ as an advantage....it doesn't matter how aggressive it is if we have treatment that can knock it out.  My very best wishes to you,

Jill

Mary Jo

I will be honest Her2+ is a very aggressive form of cancer, However being early stage is extremely positive. There are many early stage that DO NOT recur later down the road. The key is being aggressive with your treatment plan.

It sounds like you could benefit from the website http://her2support.org

There are many there like you early stage. Look under the message boards under her2group.

Ctg

dx fall05 stage4 liver and bone mets
dx fall06 brain mets / spring07 brain mets gone

Hi MaryJo,

I don't get on as often as I used to, so this is a bit late, but I wanted to share that I also was dx'd as her2+, er/pr neg, 15/23+ nodes, 3.5 cm tumor, stage IIIC in Dec 2004. I did the exact regiment that you are scheduled to do. 4 dd a/c, 4 dd taxol with weekly herceptin, then herceptin every 3 weeks for a year, 6 weeks of rads. I have been NED since completing chemo and plan to stay that way for a long, long time. Herceptin is a wonder drug and I actually felt lucky to be her2+ and to receive it rather than to be triple negative without it. There have been survey's on bc.org at different times over the past few years asking about how many of "us" who did herceptin were still NED? The results were extremely positive! The polls were for women without metastatic breast cancer - stage I - III. I think that old statistics are inaccurate now that new drugs are here for us. Try to focus on living. Get through chemo & rads as best you can. I wish you the best of luck.

Kimf