Herceptin Question

dibel
dibel Member Posts: 161
edited June 2014 in HER2+ (Positive) Breast Cancer
Herceptin Question
· Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Comments

  • dibel
    dibel Member Posts: 161
    edited March 2008

    I have finished 3 rounds of Herceptin that I will need for a year but have a question.  If my odds of a recurrence before Herceptin were 50% in 5 years, what will the odds be with the Herceptin?  Am I correct to assume it will increase my odds by 50%?  Would the recurrence percentage be 25% in 5 years with Herceptin added?  Not sure I totally understand the statistics.

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • debic
    debic Member Posts: 216
    edited March 2008

    I have my last Herceptin next month and after all this time I still don't understand the statistics.  I think it is like all things related to statistics you can make them show anything.  The way I look at it is it is one more thing I have to take to keep this beast from coming back.  When I asked my onc he said it decreased my chance of it coming back by 50%, but he couldn't tell me what my chance of it coming back were because the program they run the show the chance of recurrence does not take Her2 into account.

    I would love to get a better answer. Good luck with your treatment.

    Debi

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • Cathy-CA
    Cathy-CA Member Posts: 686
    edited March 2008

    I'm not an expert, but my understanding is that the change in statistic is after everything else is taken into account.  For example, the numbers the onc gave me based on my age, health, tumor size, etc. is that 55 percent of women are alive and without cancer with no additional therapy.  An additional 21 are alive by selecting chemo therapy.  Two die of other causes.  That leaves 22 percent that would be potentially positively impacted by Herceptin and the 50% figure applies to that.  So, in her opinion, by doing chemo AND Herceptin, it raises my chance of being cancer free in 10 years from 55% to 87%.  This info was printed out from a computer program she uses, but I'm not sure of the name. 

    I think the numbers are rather individualized, so you might ask your oncologist if there is a program available to help you understand your risk recurrence information. 

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
  • nagem
    nagem Member Posts: 353
    edited March 2008

    All these statistics are probably mooted by the fact that much more is understood now about precisely whom adriamycin, say, benefits and whom it's wasted on, and ditto herceptin since it's now understood that it works only on people who have a specific kind of her2neu+++ cancer.

    · Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Categories