SubscribeAs I mentioned last week, the team running the Persephone trial have been good enough to answer some questions about Herceptin and the trial. Here they are. Even though I’m done with Herceptin, i found this really interesting. I hope you do too.
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-Why is Herceptin such a wonder drug?
Herceptin has proved to be [...]
Bah! to cancer
Breast cancer had a pop at Stephanie. It really wishes it hadn't.
Tag: herceptin
All about Persephone
Trials and macaroons
I do always try to be fair on this blog: to report my experience on the cancer conveyer belt accurately , while trying to see the points of view of others. There are people I have praised to the skies, and people – St. George’s Oncology Department, I’m mostly looking at you – who I [...]
Over
You’ll remember that, after a great deal of thought, I decided not to have any more herceptin.
There wasn’t really any hurry to let the hospital know, so I didn’t really hurry. Partly because we were away in the immediate aftermath of the decision; partly, I think – although I didn’t make a conscious decision about [...]
Call me Persephone
Yesterday, we had an intelligent, helpful meeting with an intelligent, helpful oncologist. (Credit where it’s due.)
The gist of what we learned was this:
The original herceptin trial had 3 arms: no herceptin, a year of herceptin, and 2 years of herceptin. The survival rates from the 1-year arm of the trial were so dramatic compared to [...]
The minutes of the meeting
Today, Alan and I did what we said we’d do, and revisited our holding decision not to have any more herceptin. We agreed that we still felt it was the right decision…. kinda. We agreed that we were doing the right thing… probably. It felt right…. almost certainly. It was all a bit unsatisfactory, really.
Cue [...]
Please try my shoes
Yesterday, travelling home from Manchester, I opened an email from someone who sent some information about herceptin. It was helpful, in that it added to the weight of information that says “no-one really knows”. And it included a comment, meant helpfully I am sure, that left me breathless and blind with tears in a second. [...]
Decision
Well, we’ve made a decision. Sort of.
We’ve thought about the facts that we have and, taking into account conversations, emails and comments on the blog, we’ve thought about how we feel and what our instincts are telling us. I’ve thought a lot about the being physically low and tired and fed up and afraid that, [...]
You call it
I know that herceptin is usually given for a year in the UK. I know that the decision about whether to permit herceptin to be made available through the NHS is down to NICE (the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence). I know that NICE has no say over the length of time that [...]
Not joined up
At the hospital on Sunday, you may recall, we had the Strange Episode Of The Understanding Oncologist. She had my infected PICC removed, said that it was possible that too much herceptin is given to patients and six months may be enough, and was very clear about what would happen next: she would discuss treatment [...]
More maths
Well, the temperature didn’t come to anything, and the redness and soreness in my arm didn’t get worse. although there was some spectacularly icky green stuff on the dressing this morning. (I did not, you will be glad to hear, photograph it.) So, as promised, Alan and I set off for the hospital at 11.30 [...]
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- Mr Whiskers is settling in. He doesn't like the look of the rain I have explained it's the same rain as in London but he doesn't believe me.
- @taniaglyde You're right. And I don't even know how 'top' is defined. Just my 'top of the class' competitiveness coming in to play!
- I have gone from 5th to 8th to 14th top UK health blogger according @Wikio. It's good I don't take any notice of these things. *sulks*
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