Am i doomed too?

Her2 is not bas news--yes it is more agressive-but there are more ways to fight it-

I am a stage 4 Her2 +--finished 8 rounds of taxotere and weekly herceptin, had surgery and radiation--

I was diagnosed last June with stage 4 and was Clear by January--

unfortunately it came back again now-but I responded really well to the taxotere-

Please don't worry--you are a Stage 1!!!!  This will all be ancient history for you soon--

Amers

Magenta, I am HER2 +. I had chemo first. The primary tumor was 3.1 cm and a tumor in the lymph nodes was 2.4 cm. I went through chemo, and then had surgery the other day. The surgeon "didn't see anything in there." Both tumors were gone. Poof. HER2 + tumors are often EXTREMELY susceptible to chemo.

Hi there,

My mom is highly Her2 and she gets herceptin for her mets, if anything is hard to treat, mets would be it.  She went from having widespread and extensive mets to having one tiny spot left.  All thanks to herceptin.  Actually, on the contrary, the more Her2 that is expressed the better you will respond to Herceptin.  My mom started out at Stage 1 in 2004, herceptin was not available for her to use then.  So 4 years later she is now able to get it and she is doing fine.  Her2 is scary, its more aggressive yes, but I have never heard that only 25% of people respond to it.  A lot of women are in remission with mets and have been for years because of herceptin.  Dont let anyone scare you about your diagnosis, afterall cancer is cancer, regardless of its mechanism. 

You will do just fine and Herceptin is a fantastic drug, I give it credit for my mom's 360 in her mets. 

Take Care Michelle

My doctor said the same thing Susan, ... bad news is  you are Her2+ and good news is you are her2+ .. funny huh.. oh well

On that note.. I had two tumors 1.2 and 1.8 in same quadrant and so close they looked like a dumbell, because of the her2+ I had chemo first to shrink the tumors.  I had taxol, carboplatin and herceptin every 3 weeks for 6 treatments and now I continue with the herceptin every 3 for the remainder of the year.  I had an u/s midway through this chemo and poof the tumors were gone!!!! I was told that looking at the u/s no one would have suspected I had cancer at all so chemo does definately work as well as the herceptin!  Being her2+ scares me too because of the aggressive factor but on the other hand thank goodness for this wonderful drug! So think positive this will work and you will come out of this just fine!!!! Good Luck 

I just had to jump in here.  When I was diagnosed as being Her2+, it really made me feel down.  I knew from things I'd read that it was aggressive.    Then my onc talked to me about it and assured me that Herceptin in early stage breast cancer reduces the chances of recurrence by 52%.   Add that to chemo and radiation and that number goes way down.  I was told that Herceptin together with chemo worked better than just Herceptin alone.

Magentagirl, please stay positive because you have every reason to.  Beyond Herceptin there is Tykerg, another targeted-therapy treatment, and there will be others.  I haven't had any side effects from Herceptin.  I did lose a toe nail but my doctor says that's a left-over se from Taxol.  Otherwise, I don't mind getting Herceptin at all. 

I'll keep you in my prayers for June 11 -- keep positive thoughts and you'll do fine.   You are NOT doomed!!! 

Magenta,

My mother was dx 8 1/2 years ago with stage II, HER+. She had a unilateral mastectomy, was unable to do reconstruction because of a clotting disorder, but had chemo and rads that took about a year to complete. She's now nearly 8 years post treatment, and is still NED. Even though she had 9 lymph nodes removed (back in the day before the sentinel node biopsy) she has little trouble with her arm, feels and looks great.

Right now, with my DX being new as it is (dx 4/23, stage I, E+. P+, HER-, don't know about nodes yet 'cause SNB was this past Friday) she is one of my biggest supporters.

There is always hope. Don't lose sight of it!

Hugs

Su

I am Her+ also. I've already been through dense dose A/C and just finished 12 weekly tx of Taxol on 22 May. I was supposed to start Herceptin with Taxol but the A/C did some damage to my heart. I am now taking Coreg CR and Lisinopril daily. My only concern is that I might miss out on the advantages of Herceptin because I will be starting it  so late. I see my cardiologist on 18 June and then my onc 24 June. Hopefully, my heart has healed enough that I can finally start Herceptin sooner than later.  All I can say is that I've heard nothing but good stuff about this drug! I'm keeping a positive attitude toward all of this. You just keep that positive attitude and let Herceptin do it job! Take care.

Hi Kimbly, Your diagnosis sounds a lot like mine. I have to say this Her2+ thing freaks me out to the max!!! I can't stop worrying about that stupid little word Her2+, why couldn't it just be negative? Why couldn't I just get a simple breast cancer if I was to get one? I know all this sounds ridiculous, but I am so lost tonight, so consumed with fear and anxiety and my precious husband tries but can never say the right thing, really nobody can. I was diagnosed on 7/17/08 with IDC, er+, her2+, 1cm, stage one, node negative, so all the great docs applaud me for having early breast cancer and say I'm lucky, but nothing about this feels lucky to me. Anyway, just having a really bad night, tonight is my one week postop date for my double mastectomy, and looking at myself in the mirror is more traumatic than I ever thought it would be. On top of this, I will be starting chemo next week and I am so so so scared of that, just typing it brings me to tears. Thanks for your time and I pray that I will be typing an anniversary date one day. God bless, Jennifer

to sharont68,

Because of heart toxicity concerns, I waited until after 12 weeks of chemo and 7 weeks of rads, plus another 4 weeks into between chemo and rads, to start my Herceptin, and things have turned out well for me.  

No you aren't doomed, but I certainly remember feeling that way when I was first diagnosed.  I'm so sorry you have to go through this too.

I had 15 positive nodes and was triple positve.  I did A/C, T and Herceptin.  That was in 2005.  I'm still here, although not on the boards much anymore.  Too busy living life just as I had always intended.

Best of luck.  

 Jen

Hello HER-2 gals.  I was dx'd Oct 2005 and remember the pathologist telling me in a very sad voice that I was HER-2+.  When I asked what that meant, he touched my hand and after a very pregnant pause, said "its very serious."  Well, he apparently didn't know about Herceptin, our silver bullet.  I started taking it in March 2006 and did so for one year with some time off for bad heart behavior.  I was one of the few who experienced Stage III Cardiomyopathy as a result of my chemo.  It was dx'd 3 months after I started Herceptin and may have also been the result of 12-weeks AC before Herceptin.   Just make sure you get your MUGA's or your echos regularly.  I had an echo at least every 3 weeks for the 9 months I was on Herceptin following CHF issues, and I was devastated on the few occasions when my cardiologist felt I needed to wait.  I will be on Coreg and Benazapril for the rest of my life, but its an OK tradeoff to reduce my recurrence rate of cancer from 80% to 50%.  I feel most fortunate to live in a time when we have major weapons like Herceptin to help us win the battle.

PS  Filtering information can be a real challenge--it can be so scary and is often so outdated or just wrong.  You might want to check out HER Connection--great site.