I start a new Drug called Tykerb August 7

A new experimental drug delayed the growth of advanced breast cancer in women who had stopped responding to the drug Herceptin and were out of treatment options, doctors reported Saturday June 3 2006.

The experimental drug, Tykerb, worked so well that an international study of it was stopped early, in April, based on results in 321 women.

Those who received Tykerb plus the chemotherapy drug Xeloda had no growth of their tumors for 8 1/2 months. That compares to 4 1/2 months for those given only Xeloda.

Tykerb's manufacturer, British-based GlaxoSmithKline, said it would expand global access to the drug under compassionate use provisions, and would seek approval to sell it in the United States and elsewhere later this year.

"This is huge," said Dr. Roy Herbst, a cancer specialist at the University of Texas' M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, who had no role in the study but has consulted for Glaxo in the past. "The next step will be to use it in patients instead of Herceptin up front," to see whether it is more effective, he said.

Herceptin and Tykerb are members of a new generation of cancer medicines that more precisely target tumors without killing lots of healthy cells. Herceptin has been an important option for many women with advanced breast cancer, but eventually it stops working and women succumb to the disease.

Tykerb works in a similar yet completely novel way. Like Herceptin, it targets a protein called HER-2/neu, which is made in abnormally large quantities in roughly one-fourth of all breast cancers. Herceptin blocks the protein on the cell's surface; Tykerb does it inside the cell, and blocks a second abnormal protein, too.

In the study, Tykerb also showed signs of being able to prevent cancer from spreading to the brain. That happened to four of the 161 women given Tykerb and Xeloda, compared to 16 of the 160 women given Xeloda alone.

Tykerb has one big advantage over Herceptin -- it's a pill instead of an intravenous drug, which should make it cheaper and easier to use, doctors said.

YSC Girls in Destin

All my beautiful girlfriends in Destin Florida Memorial Day Weekend.

I had never talked to a woman with Breast Cancer before 2002. And now I feel like I have friends all over the country.

We are all so different but yet so much a like.

We all had or have BC....By the way, the youngest in the picture was diagnosed at 24 and is now 26.

Before the Shit Hit the Fan

OK OK...I'm back blogging. Almost couldn't bear to do it.
My sister Stacy just sent me this picture of us. It was taken on my 40th birthday.

I have never seen this picture before and it made me incredibly sad.

First thing that set me off was that fact that SINCE this picture was taken, my sister (and my two beautiful nephews) have moved to Mars. (ok California, but it might as well be Mars). So now, if I am lucky, I get to see Stacy and the boys twice a year.

The rest of what set me off is really shallow...please indulge me.

In that moment I was blissfully unaware of what was around the corner. Not everything in my life was perfect (had major marital problems that were about to explode)...but I physically felt as good as I ever did in my whole life.

My hair, which was always an issue, was finally at a cut that I loved, my weight was great, my energy was super high, my job was going great, my confidence was way way up, I was always on "the Move", my social life was extremely active, ....I LOVED telling people I was turning 40....nobody believed it.

Little did I know when that picture was taken...what was lurking in my right breast.

I MISS that woman in that picture. And no she is not returning. I caught a glimpse of her for a few months between my first treatment and my reoccurance (metastasis really)....but she is long gone.I guess things could always be worse....at least I got a chance to BE that woman. And at least I am here to remember her.

I just wish it didn't make me so damn sad.