Yes, Herceptin can be given with other cancer treatments. Remember, Herceptin is not chemotherapy or hormonal therapy. The potential benefits of Herceptin are in addition to the potential benefits you may receive from surgery, chemotherapy, hormonal therapy, or radiation therapy. Herceptin is not a substitute for any of these therapies. Talk to your doctor about what therapies are right for you.

Herceptin has been studied in a large clinical trial in people with HER2-positive metastatic breast cancer. People participating in the clinical trial received either chemotherapy plus Herceptin or chemotherapy alone. A clinical trial is a test of a treatment to see if it is beneficial to a particular group of people. If a treatment works well in an extensive clinical trial, it may become a new therapy that can help many people with cancer.

Herceptin® (Trastuzumab) is a treatment for women with breast cancer whose tumors have too much HER2 protein. This type of cancer is known as "HER2-positive", "HER2+", or "HER2 overexpressing". HER2+ tumors tend to grow and spread more quickly than tumors that are not HER2+. This is why it is so important to find out your cancer's HER2 status. Clinical experience with Herceptin for the adjuvant treatment of HER2+, node-positive breast cancer began in 2000.

Herceptin has been studied in 2 large clinical trials of over 3700 women. Patients participating in the clinical trials received either Herceptin plus chemotherapy or chemotherapy alone. In addition to chemotherapy, some patients in these trials received radiation therapy, and some received hormonal therapy depending on their type of tumor.

Herceptin is recommended to be taken weekly for 52 weeks. Initially, you may receive chemotherapy for 12 weeks before starting Herceptin. Once you start Herceptin, you will also receive another chemotherapy drug (paclitaxel) for the first 12 weeks of Herceptin therapy. After completion of your therapy with paclitaxel, Herceptin is given on its own. The clinical trial results showed that Herceptin plus chemotherapy reduced the risk of cancer returning by 52% compared to chemotherapy alone.

Herceptin is a treatment for women with breast cancer whose tumors have too much HER2 protein. This type of cancer is known as "HER2-positive", "HER2+", or "HER2 overexpressing". HER2+ tumors tend to grow and spread more quickly than tumors that are not HER2+. This is why it is so important to find out your cancer's HER2 status. Back to top

Cancer is viewed as a local disease, namely the tumor. By cutting out the tumor, irradiating it, or flooding the body with toxic (and often carcinogenic) drugs, the conventional physician hopes to destroy the tumor and restore the patient to health. The tumor is merely a symptom and the cancer treatment aims to correct the root causes of disease in the whole body.

Although we understand the possible benefits of some alternative therapies, this website is not strongly oriented this way. On an anecdotal basis only, we have heard of positive experiences that patients have had with the treatment of symptoms related to pancreatic cancer (and chemotherapy) involving such approaches as visualization therapy, prayer, acupuncture, green tea and Chinese herbs.

We understand that navigating the maze of insurance issues and questions can be confusing. That’s why the PBCC created the guidebook, Breast Cancer: Covered or Not?, answering many of your insurance questions, including what your insurance company is required to cover, and what is not covered. For more information or to order a copy, click here. A cost of $14.95 plus tax per copy will apply. There is a discounted rate of $5.00 plus tax available for individuals and non-profits.

Yes. Orthodox or "conventional" therapies are well covered in the medical literature so the results of chemotherapy, radiation therapy, hormone therapy, and surgery are well represented. In addition, the newer modalities such as biological therapy, immunotherapy and gene therapy are also covered. Alternative therapies are also reported, but less frequently because so few of them are actually tested.

Is there anything that I can do to prevent cancer from developing in my Barrett's esophagus? There is no proven way to completely eliminate the risk of developing cancer in Barrett's esophagus. Heartburn medications as well as anti-reflux surgery control heartburn symptoms but are not proven to make Barrett's esophagus completely disappear or prevent cancer from developing in Barrett's esophagus.

The basic treatment choices for breast cancer are surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and hormonal therapy, which may or may not be included in the treatment regimen, depending on hormonal involvement in the growth of the tumor. Local treatments such as breast surgery and radiation therapy are focused on the breast itself to remove or destroy the cancer cells confined to the breast. Systemic treatment such as chemotherapy aims to destroy the cancer cells that may have spread throughout the body.

Treatments are available for all women with breast cancer, whatever the stage. Treatments are constantly evolving, so it is important to talk to your doctor about your therapy. There are many options you and your doctor will consider. Sometimes more than one treatment is needed. Surgery is an important part of treatment for many women with breast cancer. Many women can choose between lumpectomy and mastectomy.

Yes. NCI will be working with Genentech to study the use of Herceptin at different stages of breast cancer and in combination with other agents. These new breast cancer trials are still in the planning stage. They will be carried out by investigators in academic institutions and NCI-sponsored cooperative clinical trial groups, including cancer centers, and could start enrolling patients before 1999. Return to FAQ list...

Radiation, surgery, hormone therapy and chemotherapy, either alone or in combination, are still standard treatments for prostate cancer. Immune therapy and genetic therapy may become treatment options in the future, decreasing the need for surgery and radiotherapy. The drug thalidomide may be making a comeback in the treatment of prostate cancer.

We need to address this question before looking at the effectiveness of PDT/SDT. Unfortunately, there are big problems measuring the effectiveness of cancer treatments. People with early stage cancer typically have no evidence of cancer, which means that it is impossible to know if any treatment has benefited. What is usually done is to wait until the cancer has grown sufficiently to be detectable, and then treat the patient. By then, the cancer is much harder to remove.

A: The available treatments for cancer are increasing every year. We have surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, hormonal therapy, immunotherapy, gene therapy and biologic response modifiers. Some of these treatments are so new and undeveloped that they are still experimental. For those patients in whom the cancer is localized, surgery alone may be sufficient.

When found and treated early, the five-year survival[2] rate for bladder cancer is 94%. If the cancer has spread to nearby pelvic organs, the rate is 49%, and if distant organs are involved it drops to 6%.

There is no reliable study to support the claim that infertility treatment causes ovarian cancer. One highly publicized study suggested a link between ovarian cancer in women who had received ovulation induction drugs. These women were also infertile and infertile women are at greater risk for ovarian cancer whether or not they receive ovulation induction drugs. It was not possible to determine if the increased risk was due to the women's infertility or drug treatment.

Herceptin is designed to target HER2+ cancer cells. Based on laboratory studies, Herceptin works 2 ways to stop the HER2+ cancer cell from growing. Herceptin also stops the HER2+ cancer cell from telling itself to grow and divide into more cancer cells

Herceptin Access Solutions™ is a reimbursement resource designed to address the informational needs of patients on Genentech products related to reimbursement. Herceptin Access Solutions provides information to doctors, on their patient's behalf, in order to help obtain timely reimbursement.

In 1998, Herceptin was approved for the treatment of HER2+ metastatic breast cancer. In 2006, the FDA approved Herceptin for the adjuvant treatment of patients with HER2+, node-positive breast cancer.

During the period you are taking both chemotherapy and Herceptin, you will have to discuss with your doctor or nurse whether you will be able to drive home after your infusion. After chemotherapy has been completed, and you are taking Herceptin alone, you will likely be able to drive home from your treatment. Everyone is different, however. It is not possible to predict whether you will feel well enough to drive after each infusion. Talk to your doctor or nurse.

Your particular therapy will be determined after you meet with our gynecologic oncologist. Available options include but are not limited to: surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, or a combination of these depending on the type and stage of cancer. Clinical trials offer additional choices to patients.

The M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Complementary/Integrative Medicine Education Resources (CIMER) Web site does not make recommendations of specific complementary/integrative treatments. Rather, this Web site was created to assist patients and health care professionals in deciding what types of complementary medicine might be integrated into a patient's conventional therapy.

We are beginning to receive some information about effects of cancer treatment on the memory. Generally, surgery does not affect thinking skills, unless it's performed on the brain. Young children who receive radiation therapy to the brain may experience difficulties keeping up with their peers in school. Chemotherapy, while it works on rapidly dividing cells, also affects normal cells. Once nerve cells in the brain have developed, they divide very slowly, if at all.

Usually, the cancer treatment, not the actual cancer, damages a man’s fertility. Radiation and chemotherapy kill cells that are in the middle of dividing and growing, when they are easier to damage. Cancer cells divide much more often than most normal body tissues, so they are killed off while normal cells survive. However, hair and sperm cells also grow constantly, making them sensitive to chemotherapy or radiation.