Our MBC Life

S03 E08 Road to a Cure - Dr. Heather Parsons & Dr. Nancy Lin

November 01, 2021 SHARE Cancer Support Season 3 Episode 8
Our MBC Life
S03 E08 Road to a Cure - Dr. Heather Parsons & Dr. Nancy Lin
Show Notes

The Road to a Cure series heads to Boston to have Senior Producer and Co-host, Victoria Goldberg and co-host Dr. Paula Jayne speak with Dr. Nancy Lin and Dr. Heather Parsons about the possibilities and the current barriers to considering a cure for HER2+ MBC. Dr. Parsons and Dr. Lin are medical oncologists and professors at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Lin is also the Director of the Metastatic Breast Cancer Program and the Associate Chief of the  Division of Breast Oncology at Dana Farber Cancer Institute. In addition to other pressing topics, they talk with Victoria and Paula about the national study they are about to launch, entitled STOP-HER2. It is a study to answer a burning question - is it possible for some HER2+ MBC patients, who are currently NED and have been on anti-HER2  therapy for at least 3 years, to discontinue their treatments entirely and not relapse?  While an amazing gift, long-term survival among some HER2+ patients can also sometimes bring special challenges.  Given the higher prevalence of brain metastases among HER2+ patients, Drs. Lin and Parsons also discuss current research on brain mets, along with areas of promising overall MBC research for each subtype.