I am Esra Ciftci from Ankara, the capital of Turkey. I am 36 years old. I March 2007 at the age of 35 I was diagnosed as Her2 ( 3+), grade 2b IDC when I was feeding my son - 13 months old. Now I have a 3 year old son and I want to see him grow up.
I had mastectomy. My 13 lymph nodes were removed. I had only one lymph node metastasis whose diameter was 2.8 cms. I had chemo every three weeks for six times. In the chemo I was given ‘silkofasamid, dekotaksel, doksubirin.' When the chemotherapy was over, I was given herceptin for 9 weeks I was told that it was an early diagnosis. So I carried on my life as usual.
In May 2008 (seven months after the treatment) during my three-monthly check ups, the cancer was seen to have metastasized to my liver, lungs and abdominal lymph nodes. After I had the third chemo on 9th July, It was seen that my tumors shrank about %25. Also My CA 15-3 decreased to 70 from 109 and CEA was 2.8 from 8. After the sixth chemo, in my liver, next to right lob anterior segment inferior posterior there were tumors the largest of which were 1.5x1.2 and 26x21 sized in infiltrative patters with irregular borders. It was seen that the small tumors in my liver had disappeared and two big tumors were left. In my abdominal lymph nodes the tumors shrank to milimetric sized. In my lungs tumor nodules the largest of which shrank to 6 mm sized from 1 cm in the right lung in the middle lob lateral segment . And unfortunately I had minimal regression in my lungs and that 1 cm tumor shrank to only 6mms. The metastases in my abdominal lymph nodes shrank to milimetric ones. Also My CA 15-3 decreased to 38.7 from 109 and CEA was 2.1 from 8.
My oncologist says that my cancer seems to be in remission, and that I will have three more chemos and following that I will carry on with herceptin every three weeks until the cancer develops resistance to Herceptin. I know that in about one to three years the cancer develops resistance to herceptin. Following herceptin resistance, I will have only one choice left Tykerb with Xeloda. I also know that these medications only prolong life and do not totally eradicate cancer.
