Sunday, February 07, 2010
For certain women with metastatic HER2+ breast cancer, life just got a little bit brighter – literally. On January 29, the FDA granted approval to a new combination drug therapy – Tykerb (lapatinib), and Femara (letrozole) – for post-menopausal women with estrogen-receptive, HE...
Hello i was recently diagnosised with HER2+ but my margins are clear and my lymph nodes are clear . Can someone like me still use Tykerb? They want to start me on Herception & Chemo (taxotene/cytoxan) .
Jet, the usual course of treatment is Herceptin for a year, administered either in conjunction with, or following your chemo. Tykerb, in combination with Xeloda, is an option for women with HER2+ cancer that's metastasized. There's been talk of this combo eventually supplanting Herceptin, but currently, Herceptin remains the proven treatment.
As for the Tykerb/Femara combo you're reading about here, again, it's for women whose cancer has metastaiszed. So hopefully you'll never get to the point where you'll need to undergo this treatment. Good luck to you - PJH