Journal entry by Carrie Henderson —
Caroline is doing well since completing her 12 weeks of chemotherapy. She met with her radiologist on Tuesday and will begin that treatment next week. She will have radiation every weekday from 21Sep to 12Oct. These treatments are fairly quick each visit - maybe only an hour.
She is also having a Herceptin infusion every three weeks. She had one yesterday - everything went swimmingly. She even got her favorite chair in the corner. The Herceptin infusions will continue for the next year. Several people have asked about what the infusion does and whether it is chemotherapy or not. A quick summary:
Herceptin is an intravenous drug that is part of a chemotherapy regimen that is used to prevent recurrence of breast cancer, and for the treatment breast cancer that has spread beyond the breast (metastasized). It belongs to a class of drugs called monoclonal antibodies. Since 2005, the standard of care has been to give Herceptin for 1 year after surgery and chemotherapy to reduce the risk of recurrence (the cancer coming back) of early-stage, HER2-positive breast cancer.
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