DELAY IN INJECTING HERCEPTIN

[Zahid100]

Please help me. I am in deep trouble. My mother had mastectomy done then the oncologist gave 8 cycles of chemo therapy then 15 radio therapy and after that they suggested for herceptin injection. Now I am in India and the indian doctors are suggesting that herceptin should be given with chemo and now your mother has finished chemo and radio. Now it is too late and herceptin would not work. What should I do now? Is it true that herceptin would not work?

[roxboxfox RadiationOncologist]

Dear Zahid,

You knew about Herceptin 8 months back. Your mother had T4d Inflammatory cancer. She finished chemo in Feb 2018. I m wondering what did you have in mind. Its almost 9 months since her diagnosis. Why have you decided for Herceptin out of the blue now. Treatment should ideally have started when the chemo treatment was switched to Paclitaxel.

Evidence based Oncology from well studied and well tested clinical trials suggest Herceptin to work best if it were started in November/December 2017 when her paclitaxel was initiated.

No one on this planet knows what benefit would 17 cycles of Herceptin achieve if it was delivered now in May 2018.

We cannot reverse and go back in time, but unfortunately thats the reality.