Herceptin question

aunti_m

Hi everyone, two months ago I brought up the use of Herceptin to our Oncologist. He hadn't heard of the use to treat EC so he looked it up right there in his office. He said he would contact the manufacturer to see if they would pay for it, seeing that it is still experimental. Well like I said that was two months ago, I bring it up every two weeks at his appointment and he keeps telling me the same thing. He's waiting to get it from the manufacturer. Has anyone contacted the manufacturer themselves? For some reason I feel like he's just blowing me off and hasn't even started the process. It's soooo frustrating!!!!!

JaneE2366

We are so lucky
auni_m
I can just imagine how frustrated you must be. We are so lucky....our dr kept after the drug company once our insurance turned us down. Our dr's office uses their supply of Herceptin and then the drug company reimburses them by sending them the drug. So no, we did not contact the drug company. If I were you, I would start calling the office every day to see if he called on your behalf. We saw our dr yesterday and, of course we have no way of knowing for sure, but we are all convinced that it is the Xeloda and Herceptin that is keeping Charlie in remission. According to statistics (this is why you can't believe them) Charlie should have had a re-occurrence by now....and he is still cancer free and his last PET actually showed an improvement over the last one. I am sorry but I can't remember....has your husband's tumor been tested? It must be HER-2 positive. Our dr also mentioned that when Herceptin first came out, it showed great promise with gastric cancers.....but there were so many more cases of breast cancer (that is what it is generally used for) that it made for sense (dollar sense) for the drug company to test and use it primarily for breast cancer.
I wish you luck and continue to keep you in our prayers.
Stay strong,
Jane