Thank you, Barb  ;-)

I think this is the second time we've done the chemo infiltration thing
- when I asked her about it yesterday she said she was still a little
sore but things were getting better.

Yeah - after so many years on Herceptin with rising markers and no
tumors found I was a little concerned about brain mets.  Since
Herceptin doesn't pass through the blood-brain barrier pretty well
(there's gotta be a technical term for that but I don't know what it
is) there have been some reports of statistically higher incidence of
brain metastases in women who have done Herceptin.

That's not because Herceptin causes increased incidence of brain mets
or anything awful like that, it's because Herceptin can be so good at
killing the nasties in other places that women who would have died of
lung or liver mets are living longer - and since the drug doesn't get
into your head very well it tends to kill the nasties everywhere but
there  ;-)

Now Lapatinib, on the other hand - is a small molecule drug and targets
both erbB1 and erbB2 (Her2).  Response rates in clinical trials are
still 25% to 35%, which ain't bad.  It ain't a cure, but it is
interesting.  Been watching this one closely  ;-)

I might be wrong, but I don't think they can irradiate lung tissue.
Maybe they can if that's the location of the primary tumor, but
Deborah's disease is treated as systemic.  I guess zapping secondary
tumors would work in the short term, but they'd grow back.

Anyway, thanks for the kind thoughts, Barb.  I'll pass those thoughts
on to Deborah.

hugs -

allan