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gedmathteacher t1_jbyerau wrote

Reply to comment by MegBundy in Cancer timeline: treatment for stage 3c triple positive breast cancer (all cancers are unique, this is my personal timeline; similar diagnoses will have a similar, but not identical, timeline) [OC] by BluebellsMcGee

I don’t see Herceptin on this

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BluebellsMcGee OP t1_jbyh4o7 wrote

I had Herceptin in my TCHP chemo cocktail. MegBundy most likely achieved pCR (pathologic complete response), which means her chemo completely killed her cancer.

When a triple positive patient gets pCR, she gets Herceptin infusions (or shots).

When a triple positive patient doesn’t achieve pCR, the prognosis isn’t as rosy, so they throw stronger drugs at it, including Kadcyla, Nerlynx, Zometa, and whatever other new treatments they can concoct (new treatments are coming out almost every year).

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MegBundy t1_jbyn45x wrote

I didn’t achieve pcr, but hopefully my double mastectomy removed all the cancer. I often consider about how much the cancer would have spread without Herceptin. I don’t think the previous poster , u/gedmathteacher , realizes that triple positive was very aggressive and deadly before Herceptin, which has only been around for twenty years. My husband met one of the researchers who discovered Herceptin, Dennis Slamon, and discussed my therapy with him when I was first diagnosed. TCHP is standard treatment for the vast majority of triple positive cases. The H in TCHP is Herceptin, and TCHP is listed in the first line of the graph.

Herceptin can go by other names, Trastuzumab, Herzuma and Ontruzant, so maybe that’s confusing.

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gedmathteacher t1_jbyphnk wrote

My apologies. Herceptin saved my sisters life. Now that I see where it is in the timeline, it’s the same course she had. She had the same cancer as you and wrote a book about it. I have no excuse to be so ignorant

Edit : she had triple negative

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Ch1Guy t1_jbz8d1h wrote

Triple negative means the cancer doesn't have estrogen or progesterone receptors, or make excessive HER2 proteins.

Herceptin is generally for HER2 positive cancer.

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MegBundy t1_jbyq89i wrote

Triple negative is a terrible prognosis. I’m so sorry she went through that. It is so wonderful she survived.

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gedmathteacher t1_jbysxt7 wrote

Ugh she was HER2+, ER-

Thank you science regardless!!

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MegBundy t1_jbytrpu wrote

So many cancers out there! How can we keep track?! 😆

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Ch1Guy t1_jbz7k97 wrote

Herceptin is the H in TCHP Taxotere Carboplatin Herceptin Perjeta

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