Ok so I know I said this podcast wasn't really about cancer, but I figured that we may as well get the elephant in the room out of the way....!

So, for episode 1, my wonderful friend Lou joins me to discuss my shock breast cancer diagnosis and what we have both learnt over the past few months.

Show notes:

- Chemotherapy drug names:

Cycles 1-3. Docetaxel (brand name Taxotere) + Carboplatin (I dose every 3 weeks.)

Cycles 3-6. Paclitaxel (often referred to as Taxol) + Carboplatin (Reduced dose taxol and carbo week 1, reduced dose taxol week 2, week 3 - break :-)

- Targeted therapy drug (works by blocking the HER2 receptors.)

Injection of Pertuzumab, trastuzumab, and hyaluronidase-zzx (Brand name Phesgo) once every 3 weeks

Miscelleneous:

- Herceptin entered clinical development in 1992 and was approved in 1998.

- With the development of HER2-targeted agents, HER2-positive breast cancer is now a treatable disease and outcomes have dramatically improved for these patients. Currently, survival rates exceed 90 percentin HER2-positive breast cancer that is diagnosed early and treated with chemotherapy and dual antibody therapy. Source: https://www.bcrf.org/blog/her2-positive-breast-cancer-treatment-research/#:~:text=With%20the%20development%20of%20HER2,chemotherapy%20and%20dual%20antibody%20therapy.

- The statistics quoted by my oncologist for Stage 2 HER2+ prognosis:

Remission (cancer free 5 years after diagnosis) 86% of patients.

Treated recurrance 13% of patients.

Do not survive: 1% of patients.

(I am aware that we got the maths a bit wrong during the chat!)